Rabbit's Foot
by Serephy
Summary: If you get involved with the 'Unlucky Uchiha,' you're sure to disappear. When lucky Naruto meets Uchiha Sasuke, one of the survivors of the Uchiha clan, he uncovers the secret to the disappearances...and the one person he can truly love. NaruSasu, AU.
1. Cracked Eggs

Finally, I got this story up (sorry to any of my readers that don't like NaruSasu, but I felt like writing it!). It took me forever to get the initial storyline down. That's the main reason it took so long. Also, one of my friends wanted me to write something for her and she gave me a deadline of a week. And there's that horrible thing called school. Oh, well, you don't want to hear about my personal life.

Summary: Getting involved with the unlucky Uchiha isn't the first thing Uzumaki Naruto needs. Too bad it's the first thing he wants.

Warnings: Yaoi, NaruSasu.

I do _not_ consider Itachi OOC here because I based his character more on his kinder, 13 year old self.

Note: Konoha here is an independent country in our world... A small island near Japan.

Enjoy!

* * *

_Chapter One. Cracked Eggs._

While on the ferry boat from Yokohama to the small island of Konoha, everyone is asleep. That is, everyone except for one teenager. The adolescent pulls a chocolate muffin out of his bag and places a candle on it. He steals his brother's lighter and attempts to light the candle, making a silent fuss over it. When he finally succeeds in lighting the candle, he nudges his brother awake and smiles. "Happy Birthday, Itachi," Sasuke whispers softly, shoving the candle-lit muffin in his brother's face. "Make a wish."

"And I thought you were too old to believe in wishes on your birthday," Itachi says back, but he grins anyway. He flips open his cell phone to check the time. Sure enough, it's exactly 12:00 a.m. on June ninth. Leave it to his younger brother to be extra punctual. He blows out the single candle and takes the muffin from Sasuke's hand, carefully taking a bite into it while eying the sign that specifically says, 'No Food Allowed.'

Sasuke scowls. "What did you wish for?"

"Nothing." Itachi will never dare tell his younger brother what he wished for. He is about to finish the muffin until someone shines a flashlight on him, temporary blinding him due to the sudden light. "What?" the birthday boy demands as quietly as his anger allows him.

"No food allowed, sir," the man says promptly.

But by the time the man says the word 'no,' Itachi has already popped the last piece of chocolate muffin into his mouth. "What food?" The man frowns at him, and Itachi stretches his legs and then pretends to go back to sleep. Sasuke rolls his eyes and plays with the waxy candle in his hand. Itachi doesn't usually break the rules, even if it's something as pathetic as 'No Food Allowed.' And just leave it to their bad luck to get caught – the crew doesn't usually go back here.

The man grumbles about bothersome people taking their ferryboat and leaves them, finally turning off his flashlight when he accidentally wakes up a few more light-sensitive people. Sasuke lets himself smile inwardly as he glances out the window, seeing an undersized, foreign island with a few city lights in the horizon. "Is that Konoha?" he asks his brother.

Itachi opens one eye and looks out the window over his younger brother's shoulder. "Yeah, that's Konoha," he replies, relaxing back in his seat after he got a look at the island. "It never seems to change, that place," he adds, shutting both eyes. Sasuke does not know why Itachi had said that sentence a little bitterly.

The two brothers had just decided to leave Tokyo a week ago. Well, Itachi decided. He told Sasuke that he wanted to see if their hometown ever changed, and the teenager didn't mind, really. Even if Tokyo is one of the biggest and most populated cities in the world – he still felt quite lonely (at least he has his brother).Besides, Sasuke doesn't mind a change of scenery. But he won't admit to his brother that he is as excited as a little kid going to the zoo for the first time.

Konoha. It has an odd ring to it, Sasuke thinks. He opens his mouth to say something else to Itachi, but his brother seems to be asleep (you can never really tell, though). When Sasuke glances out the window again, the island is more visible now. He spies a lot of greenery and only a few skyscrapers that don't even seem to scrape the sky. _So much for a city, _he thinks, a little disillusioned.

But he did think that a change of scenery might not be so bad. Sasuke takes a quarter out of his pocket and flips it, a daily good-luck, bad-luck test that Itachi got him to do everyday – and for a good reason. He catches the quarter and slaps it onto the back of his hand, groaning in his head for the millionth time.

Heads down.

Well, since this is the millionth time, Sasuke's pretty used to the bad luck.

* * *

Uzumaki Naruto is bored. Extremely bored. With one of his close friends – Haku – gone, he has absolutely nothing to do this summer vacation. Heck, he even did his summer homework just to entertain his wandering mind and body for a while (and he usually does summer homework on the last day of vacation). He reaches for another cup ramen pack, but then stops himself. Pigging out won't do him that much good, especially since he's planning to actually get a relationship this year. He's already going into senior year in high school, and not once has he gotten into a serious relationship.

Well, to be more precise, not once has anybody asked Naruto out (and Naruto does have the guts to ask someone out, it's just that they say 'No' all the time). After a while, the Uzumaki begins to wonder if there's something especially wrong with him. He doesn't think he's particularly gross and disgusting. He doesn't get excellent grades but he's pretty good at athletics – girls like athletic guys, right? And once he showed a picture of his father to his friends, and all the girls said his father was hot.

That _has _to mean something. Naruto, who has never met or seen his mother, is now seriously beginning to wonder if his mother was extremely ugly (_If she was, how could my father have fallen for her…?)._

A loud crash outside of Naruto's door wakes him up from his daze. "Goddamn noisy neighbors," Naruto mutters, not thinking that the noise is odd at all (but in reality, his neighbors yell at _him_ for being noisy). "Would you be quiet out there?" he demands, opening the door and poking his head out into the hallway. He's brow furrows at the sight – a pale, raven haired boy, lying face down with his hands on the floor to break his fall. A plastic bag that is from Shop Rite is sprawled on the floor next to him with egg yolk soaking on the wooden floor.

"Ouch," the boy mumbles, rubbing his forehead. He jerks up suddenly, brushing his hands on his white shorts as if he doesn't want to be seen in such a pathetic situation. "Great," he mutters, looking down on the spill on the floor. He picks up the plastic bag that is full of cracked eggs tentatively and sighs, murmuring curses under his breath.

Naruto smiles smugly at the fact that he hasn't been noticed yet. His first thought at the scene was that he found a new, stuck-up kid in a bad situation that he can possibly use for blackmail in the future. But on second glance, he was able to get a good view of the teenage boy. This 'tripper' has raven hair in an odd style that spikes up in the back. His eyes are dark and his skin is pale - and Naruto rapidly realizes that if you weren't paying attention anyone could have mistaken that body for a girl's. The blonde is vaguely reminded of Snow White.

"What are you just standing there for?" Naruto jumps at the slightly deep voice. The boy didn't seem to move, so the he begins to think that someone else said that. The raven haired teen turns around, still holding the dripping yellow mess in his right hand. "So this place is still filled with complete dunces," the boy says as he begins to walk to the apartment next to Naruto's, the apartment where Haku used to live. "No different than Tokyo."

Naruto points to the egg yolk. "Aren't you supposed to clean that up? I'm not doing it for you." He'd like to see that boy on his hands and knees, cleaning it all up (for two reasons – blackmail, and a sudden urge that he cannot explain himself).

The boy scowls. "If I leave this thing dripping it will cause more of a mess," he replies briskly and irritably. The teenager disappears into his apartment for a moment and then comes back out with a rag to clean it up. Naruto stands at his doorway, watching him for no particular reason. _He's not from around here, _Naruto thinks. Konoha doesn't get that many people moving in. The majority of the people that live in Konoha have families that have been there since it became an independent country. The rest are those who moved in, but barely anyone moves into this island and actually stays for a reasonable amount of time.

"It's just your bad luck that you had to trip while carrying eggs," Naruto says, leaning against the door. "My name's Uzumaki Naruto, by the way! You better remember it – I'm your new neighbor!" Naruto points to himself with his thumb.

The other boy stops scrubbing for one second, and then continues. "Yeah. My bad luck," he mumbles so softly that Naruto has to strain his ears to hear him. Then he says louder, "Uchiha Sasuke." He stands up when the ground looks as if the eggs never cracked in the first place. "And I don't really care if you remember it."

Sasuke walks back out of the hallway and back outside, where he must be unloading some other stuff for his new apartment. Naruto follows him with his eyes. Uchiha Sasuke. Where has he heard the last name _Uchiha _before? The blonde shrugs it off and then returns to his apartment, plopping by the window. Unlike many people, Naruto does not bother with things such as politely greeting new neighbors with a good welcome gift. He typically could care less – and the people moving in could care less, too.

Besides, people moving into Konoha _are _a rarity.

Naruto looks out the window, where he spies Sasuke pulling groceries out of the back of a car. There is a taller man with him – probably in college or recently finished college – and he looks vaguely familiar, too. The older man goes ahead of Sasuke and into the building. And Sasuke picks up two more plastic bags and then shuts the door. Naruto watches in amusement when the boy freezes when a neighbor's black cat runs across the sidewalks, crossing his path.

Well, you don't meet many superstitious people, either.

* * *

"I don't like it here," Sasuke says ever so bluntly, sitting on the couch and playing with the remote. Itachi simply raises an eyebrow. If he replies, then he'll get a long list of good reasons why he does not like it here – and the last thing Uchiha Itachi wants to do is listen to his little brother's teenage ramblings of angst. "I don't like it here," Sasuke repeats, louder this time.

"Yes, yes, I heard you the first time," Itachi replies rolling his eyes. "You're not a cute baby anymore, so whining won't help you at all." He stuffs milk into the refrigerator and then picks up the plastic bag that looks just a little more yellow than the others. Itachi pulls out the empty egg carton. Sasuke watches him, his eyebrows pushing together. "Do you mind telling me why this egg carton is empty?" the older brother says, waving it in the air so that the teenager can see.

Sasuke blinks and replies matter-of-factly, "It was squashed under the gallon of water."

Itachi shrugs and throws the carton away, feeling Sasuke's eyes directed at the back of his head. He holds the panel of the garbage can open, staring down at it. "Then do you mind telling me why there are broken egg shells in the new garbage can?" he questions, making it sound casual. He lets go of the panel and looks at his brother over his shoulder.

"Because," his younger brother says.

To be honest, Uchiha Itachi does not like this generation and how they can get away with a question just by saying 'because.' He sits down next to his younger brother on the couch and does not say a word. He hears Sasuke release a held breath, and that's when he asks his next question. "Since you didn't mind answering my previous two questions, would you mind answering a third?" Itachi asks.

"Yes."

Itachi disregards this. "Why were you talking to that blonde next door?" he says, jerking his head to the side as if that Naruto kid is standing right next to them. Well, he might as well be – the walls here are rather thin. Itachi smiles a little when his younger brother does not give him an answer. But really, Itachi does not mind Sasuke finally being able to go out and have friends…but of course, he doesn't say that. Sasuke opens his mouth. "Don't answer with only 'because,'" Itachi interrupts.

Sasuke seems to deflate at this. Is he really that predictable? "Because he started talking to me. I told him my name and stopped the conversation there," he explains hesitantly. "That blonde is an idiot. I know that much already." Sasuke leans against the couch, now a little more relaxed. When Itachi opens his mouth, it's his turn to interrupt. "You aren't going to lecture me again, are you?" he asks, eyes narrowed just a bit.

"No," he says. The conversation seems to end then and there, but Itachi is not through yet. Sasuke is about to get up to go to his room and unpack. That is when the older Uchiha tells him, "You'll learn to love it here. Trust me."

* * *

Sitting at the park and scaring innocent little kids with his (once cute puppy) vicious, yet trained dog is one of Inuzuka Kiba's favorite hobbies. Watching Kiba sit at the park and scare innocent little kids with Akamaru is not one of Uzumaki Naruto's favorite hobbies. It gets extremely boring once Kiba keeps accidentally freaking out the same kids over and over again…and their parents chew him out and then yell at Naruto for not stopping them…and then the kids are on to you and they'll never be scared by Akamaru again.

Naruto follows his friend, Kiba, as they stroll through the park, letting Akamaru have his ten millionth walk of the day. Whenever Naruto asks how many times the dog-lover has walked his dog, Kiba would forget the number. Either it's because he really does take him out for numerous walks, or it's because he hasn't learned to count. Or that he never counts in the first place, but Naruto never figures that out.

"Something's on your mind, Naruto," Kiba says in a joking tone. "Akamaru can sense it. See? He feels bad for you." Akamaru stops and licks Uzumaki's hand affectionately. "Stop it, Akamaru. Or else everyone will figure out that you're actually a nice dog." Apparently, Kiba likes the feeling of 'supposedly owning a badass dog. Akamaru complies, as usual and continues to walk along the sidewalk.

"Well, someone moved into Konoha today."

Kiba stops – Akamaru does not notice this and is jerked backwards when he keeps moving forward. "Well, well, that's rare. Who is it? A sexy chick? Please tell me it's a hot girl with a bitchin'…bitch for Akamaru here to mate with." Naruto shakes his head with his signature toothy grin. The Uchihas definitely are not the sexy girls Kiba wants. The dog-lover frowns. "If not, then at least someone worth my interest. Or don't tell me – it's some stuck up bastard, like Hyuuga Neji. Or some…freak like Aburame."

"No, its two guys with the last name Uchiha," Naruto says. He pauses, and then speaks again. "Have you heard of the last name Uchiha before? Or is it just me?"

Kiba rolls his eyes when Akamaru stops to take a piss. Once his dog is finished with his business, Kiba replies, "You said Uchiha, right?" Naruto nods. "I think I heard of it before, but I can't really say when or where." Akamaru begins to walk again, jerking Kiba forward this time when he forgets to move. "Whoa, there, Akamaru…But what does it matter? Lots of people in Konoha move out and back in, you know?"

"Yeah, yeah, I know," Naruto responds, dismissing the conversation as easily as it came (mostly because there's nothing else he can say about it). Still, the last name 'Uchiha' keeps eating at the back of his head.

When Naruto sits down for a short break, Kiba wanders off with Akamaru…going to talk to some girl he says he's been watching for a while now at the park. The blonde can't say that he's _not _jealous of his friend's natural (uncanny, to Naruto) ability to come home with a few phone numbers in his pocket. And then Kiba will proceed to mock Naruto and his bad luck with the ladies. The blonde is beginning to believe he is cursed – good luck in everything else except for a love life.

Either that, or females just plain out hate him.

* * *

Since his older brother had just left to go and find a part-time job that won't get him too much attention, Sasuke has the entire apartment to himself for now. He does not consider even leaving the apartment, because that idiot blonde might be outside – and the last thing Uchiha Sasuke wants is to talk with another idiot that reminds him of Tokyo. But, come to think of it, he realizes that Tokyo might be better than this place. When he first thought of going to his 'hometown,' he imagined some great place…Well, Sasuke's used to disappointments.

And Sasuke's not stupid. Itachi randomly decided to move back to Konoha for a good reason…a reason that Uchiha Sasuke is determined to figure out.

* * *

They had just gone out for groceries,_ Sasuke thinks, poking his head up to look out the window. _Nothing bad could've happened.Something must've come up – the line was too long; there was a lot of traffic._ But Itachi had gone soon after they left without saying anything…Something must be up. Sasuke hates it when people tell him he's too young to know things. He's only seven and he knows every country's name. _And _he can pronounce them correctly! _

_Itachi's a liar. Sasuke knows that much. Even if he lies for good reasons, a liar's a liar – its one thing about his older brother that he hates. Then again, there are many things that he hates. Like being ignorant and left alone, for instance. Even though he also hates to admit this, Sasuke is still a child. He is prone to impatience, and wanting things his way. And what he wants is for his parents and his brother to finally come home. _

_Sasuke looks at his digital watch. An hour and fifty minutes since his parents left. An hour and thirty minutes since his brother left. When will they come home? He pushes the curtains aside and peeks out the window, watching for a familiar car to zoom by and pull up at their driveway. But Tokyo is a large city, and the car that the Uchihas own aren't very unique. Many cars that look similar bring the young Uchiha's hopes up. _

_It's another thing Sasuke's smart enough to know. He knows when God or the forces above or etc. are just playing around with him._

_He takes another glimpse out the window – and he bubbles up with semi-joy. It's not the car, but Itachi who comes back on his bike. Sasuke opens the door and yells, "Itachi! What took you so long!?" His older brother doesn't say anything. He opens the garage door, puts his bike inside and then closes the door. "Itachi?" Sasuke says, looking at him with wide yet glowering eyes. It's on Itachi's face. Bad news. Sasuke hates bad news._

"_Mother and Father," Itachi murmurs. The younger brother crosses his arms. Sasuke knows when people are hiding things from him. It's the same thing as lying. Did Sasuke ever mention that Itachi's a liar? "They died in a car accident," Itachi finishes._

_Sasuke's eyes widen yet again and his arms fall limp to his sides. Sure, he's heard the word 'death' before (he's heard it a lot when they still lived in Konoha. People died a lot in Konoha), and he took the word too lightly. His parents are…dead? "Dead? They died?" Sasuke asks loudly, hoping that he just misunderstood Itachi, or Itachi had just decided to pull a practical joke (Itachi's a liar, after all)._

_It is understandable that Itachi can only manage a nod. Tears sting at Sasuke's eyes, but _no _he will not cry in front of his brother. Itachi isn't crying, so he shouldn't be. Right? They do not say a word for a long time – they just sit there in silence. It takes Sasuke a long time to finally muster up his courage and ask, "What will happen to us? Father said…" the seven year old gulps down a few tears. It is painful to even say the word 'father.' "Father said that if kids lose their parents they'll need new ones or…or we'll go to that bad orphanage where Mrs. Mann makes kids work and make us only eat porridge and stuff…" _

_Itachi raises an eyebrow although the slightly amused look on his face disappears rapidly. "Yeah. What Father said was true, but…it'll be alright, Sasuke. It will."_

_But Sasuke knows (and you should know by now, too) Itachi is a liar._

* * *

Sakura places eleven smoothies of different flavors and styles on the table, scowling all the while. "I'm so screwed if my parents find out that I'm giving out smoothies on the house," she says as she sits down next to Ino and Naruto. "You're lucky that my parents like you guys. Or else you'd be screwed, too."

Shikamaru doesn't touch the lemon lime smoothie he has. "It _is _on the house, right?" he questions the pink haired girl. It'd be too troublesome to pay for such a thing. Even more troublesome since he's just as flat broke as Kiba and Naruto is (This isn't really flat broke…More like, enough money to get by but not enough money for leisure). When Sakura rolls her green eyes and nods, Shikamaru promptly sticks the straw in his mouth.

"Thank you, Sakura!" Naruto exclaims, hoping that it'd give him a few more points with the cherry blossom girl. "Did I ever tell you you're the best?"

"Yes, and didn't I tell you to give up?"

"No, I don't recall that," Naruto shoots Sakura his signature grin, one that highly resembles his father's. Hinata blushes furiously and hides unsuccessfully behind her filled glass.

"And Kiba, didn't I tell you that dogs aren't allowed here?" Sakura points to Akamaru, who is lying lazily underneath the table, occasionally brushing against their ankles and whacking their toes with his overactive tail. "If my parents find out about this, I'm gonna-"

Kiba groans, hearing this talk before. "Be screwed? Punch us all in the face? Kick us all in the dicks? Yeah, I think we've heard it all. Give it a rest, Sakura, it's not like they really care. 'Sides, Akamaru's not just any dog. He's _my _dog. Doesn't that make any difference?" He nudges his dog a little, a sign to make a cute, puppy-dog face at the pink haired girl. Akamaru jerks up and does what Kiba says. All the girls make an 'Aww!' sound, and Kiba chuckles. Girls always love cute things.

When Akamaru retreats back to the shade of the table, Sakura clears her throat. "Fine, fine, Akamaru can stay. But don't tell my parents that I said he could! As far as they know, I am completely against it!"

"Anyway," Naruto pipes in, deciding that they need to talk about something else other than his friend's unenthusiastic hospitality.

The dog-lover took this as a sign – a sign that Naruto did not signal for. "You know, Naruto says there's two new guys that just moved into Konoha." The Inuzuka smirks. He knows he got the girls interested on 'guys.'

"Well?" Ino asks, glancing at Uzumaki Naruto. "Are they hot?"

"How am I supposed to know?! I'm not gay!"

_Tch, yeah right, _Kiba thinks. He knows Naruto more than Naruto thinks. The reason he has no luck with the ladies is because he's already been walking in a straight line for a while now. The blonde is just too stupid to realize that he's strayed from the path. "Hey, but here's the _interesting _part," Kiba says. He did not really relish the idea of all the girls fawning over some new guys, either. "Their last name was Uchiha."

Sakura nearly spits out her smoothie all over silent Shino's face. Shino inches away from spraying rang, just in case she does it again. _"Uchiha?" _she exclaims at full volume. Ino covers hear ears – Shikamaru sticks is pinky into his ears. "You said Uchiha, right?" she repeats, calming down a bit. Inuzuka and Uzumaki nod their heads, shocked by their friend's reaction. "Oh my God," Sakura says, plopping back down into her seat.

Naruto demands, "What's the big deal?"

"The big deal?" Sakura yells. She sees her parents giving her 'the look' from a few tables away, so she lowers her voice just a tad. "The Uchiha are known for being _cursed. _They used to be a huge family, but around nine or ten years ago, all of their family members started to disappear, one by one, without any explanation. They also seemed to have extremely bad luck. But with the bad luck, they are _tremendously_ gorgeous."

She pauses, the girls whisper to each other. The females quiet when Sakura continues to speak. "But that bad luck – it's contagious. Whoever got into an intimate relationship with the Uchiha disappeared, too. So those good looks are a curse, too. They left Konoha some time ago. It's no surprise that they're back…and that there are only two of them left."

Everyone has already finished their smoothies. Another waitress helps Sakura as she rounds up all the empty glasses and leaves. Everyone says their good-byes and go their separate ways. But Sakura's little story sticks in the back of Uzumaki Naruto's mind. And his friend's information isn't the only thing that makes Naruto actually use his brain. The last name _Uchiha…_He heard it somewhere, and he finally remembers when.

He heard it from his father's mouth, the night before he died.

* * *

_Chapter One End_

I finally finished! Thanks for reading again. Please review! I'll update again as fast as I can.


	2. Instant Ramen

Thanks for the many reviews! They are much appreciated. And sorry for the long wait, because I had to go away from my precious computer for a week (I went to Washington D.C.)…Sorry!!

Anyway, here is the next chapter!

* * *

_Chapter Two: Instant Ramen_

He had slept on the idea of 'the Uchiha's curse,' deciding to deal with it in the morning. Any thoughts that had to do with his father always make him exhausted (which is odd, because we all know that Naruto is a fountain that is overflowing with interminable energy). Naruto yawns noisily as he reaches his arm into a cabinet and pulls out a cup of instant ramen for breakfast – the last one. Then he opens the white door of the refrigerator and tugs out a carton of milk. It's also the last one, and almost empty.

Naruto has to go grocery shopping again. Grocery shopping is the time when he spends all of his excess money on stacks of ramen, milk, water, eggs, junk food, etc. It's the Uzumaki's least favorite occasion, chiefly because his wallet deflates excessively. And he hates it when his frog wallet deflates. What most people don't know about Naruto is that he is quite prudent when it comes to money.

After the seemingly endless three minute wait, Naruto rips off the cover and picks up two chopsticks. As he begins to slurp up the ramen noodles, he stares at the wall where the two Uchiha brothers are supposedly living.

Naruto dreamt about his father last night, and that isn't a good sign. He dreamt about that boy, Sasuke, who tripped yesterday, and he woke up all clammy and feeling awkward in the middle of the night. Naruto is sure that isn't a good sign, but he is not sure what to make of it.

To top it all off, Naruto is actually _thinking _in the morning (and during summer vacation). What he really knows is that he must be really whacked up this summer.

_What Sakura said about the curse can't be true,_ Naruto muses, trying to make the voice in his mind sound casual. His brain hurts already. And he's not usually a skeptic _(What's wrong with me today?)_.

The Uzumaki hears a voice on the other side of the wall, a voice that is too deep to be Sasuke's. He cannot quite make out what he is saying, but whoever it is says something about 'going' and 'work' and 'won't get us killed.' Whatever that means, Naruto does not

know. He hears footsteps march outside his door and then soften in the distance. Naruto presses his ear to the thin wall and he clearly hears Sasuke mutter, "What a waste with all your college degrees." to nobody in particular.

When Naruto finishes up all of his ramen and throws the empty container into the garbage can (along with the empty milk carton), he hears the door open again on the other side and another pair of footsteps walking away. Naruto groans, because he was meaning to talk to at least one of the Uchiha brothers today about the curse. Maybe he shouldn't have taken his time eating ramen.

Well, he can always catch them later. Naruto opens his refrigerator door and stares at its vacant shelves. Meanwhile, he has to go get his wallet deflated.

* * *

The Haruno family is well-known in Konoha for its restaurant. Therefore, it is the Haruno family's duty to know most of the people on this 'city-island'. And Haruno Sakura, the brightest teenager in the entire city (it can be Shikamaru, if he gave the effort), had memorized all of the last names of all of the Konoha citizens when she was ten years old.

There are the occasional businessmen and tourists, but Sakura does not know this person. And she does not think that he is a businessmen or a tourist, either, because he is asking to work here.

Since Sakura knows all the last names in Konoha, she has memorized most of the important faces. And whoever this person is, it is absolutely an important face. What she means by that is that this…Itachi…is captivatingly attractive. As a teenage girl, Sakura has to have this face in the file cabinet called her brain – what with the alluring eyes, sharp features, long hair that any female would be envious of, and a striking personality. The only thing that Sakura would have liked to change about him is his age – if only he were younger…then she can actually have at least twenty percent better chance at a relationship.

"Uhm…what was your surname again?" Sakura asks, trying very hard to keep her eyes locked on his and not on the floor. _You can do it, Sakura! _Inner Sakura screams excitedly.

The corners of the man's lips pull down just a tad _(Uh-oh)._ "Uchiha. I'm Uchiha Itachi."

_Uchiha!?_ She clears her throat._ Okay, Sakura, calm down!_ She hopes that Itachi did not notice that her eyes widened for a second and that she nearly dropped the plate she was holding. If she's lucky, Itachi will not suspect her of knowing about the curse. Not many kids her age knows about it (and of course, Sakura does because she plans to be aware of everything one person can be aware of).

But, damn, that really lowers her chances of having a successful relationship with him.

"Alright, well…we _are _in a need for new workers," Sakura says, clandestinely hiding the apprehension in her voice. "You don't need to do much to get hired." _If I hire him, I'll learn about the curse! _"Do you have experience in a restaurant?" Itachi nods after a short pause. "Alright, then! You're hired. Your shifts are…" Sakura keeps talking, keeping her mind on the details of Itachi's new job.

It can't be too bad, hiring someone with extremely bad luck, can it?

Sakura hopes that Itachi knows how to play hard to get. Not a lot of handsome faces come around Konoha (even if there are, they're more like brothers than lovers). Next thing you know, the Haruno restaurant will be filled with females that are just itching to see the new, sexy face of Konoha. She tells her parents about the new worker, but leaves the _Uchiha_ part out. Once Sakura gets to her break time she gets a strawberry smoothie and collapses on her chair, now wondering if Itachi can play _too_ hard to get.

Because the last thing Konoha needs is all of its female population disappearing.

* * *

He could have picked a better job, but for some odd reason, he stuck with this one. As Uchiha Sasuke stands (rather conspicuously) behind a cash register in the grocery store, he feels like a complete fool. He scowls at the next customer so hard that his face muscles begin to ache. The only two reasons Sasuke decided against being a waiter was because Itachi obviously would choose a job like that (just because he likes to be suave) and that Itachi said it would be better if they had completely different jobs.

Well, they both have jobs that have to do with food. Most part-time jobs do.

The shopper gives Sasuke a slightly frightened look as he hands him cash. Sasuke hates having to give back change. He especially hates it when he runs out of change in his register. And the more people ask for change, the higher the chances go up that he'll have to ask someone for another roll of cents.

When the patron scurries off hastily with his wife, Sasuke sends a death glare to his back.

Some idiot blonde (Sasuke can only see his hair at the moment) has a huge cartful of instant ramen. Sasuke's lips twitch as he resists the urge to ask, crudely, why it is necessary to buy the store's entire stock of instant ramen. But if he does, he risks losing his job the day he got it. Still, Sasuke rolls his eyes when the customer has two baskets full of ramen in his hands, as well.

_Great, _Sasuke thinks when the fool with the ramen begins to dunk his cart's contents onto his conveyor belt. He begins to check the food out, counting them. After the seventh container, there are eggs.

"Careful with those eggs."

Sasuke's eyes snap to the customer. An unfamiliar face. "Do I know you?" _Eggs number one. Ramen number eight. Ramen number nine. Junk food number 1._

The patron slaps his forehead. "I'm your neighbor! The one who saw you trip with the eggs, remember?" _Milk carton number 1. Ramen number 10. Milk carton number 2. Eggs number 2._

"Oh." _Ramen number 11. _"…Uzumaki Naruto." Sasuke knew it from the start – he is a complete fool. _Junk food number 2._

Naruto's eyebrow twitches uncomfortably. _Eggs number 3. _"That's all you can say when I was the first one who greeted you into Konoha!?" _Milk carton number 3. _"Watch out with that milk, too."

_Junk food number 3. Salt, number 1. _Sasuke glares at the sodium chloride. He tells himself that he's acting like Itachi, being overly superstitious and too careful around salt. "Actually, the first person who greeted us into Konoha was the captain of that ferry boat." Naruto opens his big mouth, but he keeps speaking. "Second person was that man who caught my brother eating on that ship. It wasn't such a bright welcome, either."_ Salt number 2.. _"And I'm not clumsy."

"Sure you aren't," Naruto sarcastically replies. Then he adds in a more serious note, "Or are you just cursed with bad luck?"

Sasuke fumbles with the salt container and accidentally lets it fall to the ground at the words 'cursed with bad luck.' "Shit," he mumbles, picking it up. Just a tiny bit of salt had fallen out of the container _(Aren't these things supposed to be sealed?, _Sasuke thinks heatedly). He checks that out, too, and puts it into the bag. "I'm not as silly as my brother to be superstitious," Sasuke says as he packs the ramen numbers ten through sixteen (and junk food 4 to eight) in a few more bags.

"Then whose fault is your bad luck?" Naruto asks as he continues to place all the bags into his cart.

Sasuke replies unexpectedly, "I don't know." Short pause. Naruto begins to leave. But then Sasuke's eyes widen with fury as he yells across the grocery store, "You fucking idiot, you didn't pay yet!"

Naruto darts back hesitantly with his frog wallet, ready for deflation. A mother that is waiting on line is still covering her son's ears while staring at Sasuke with a shocked expression. Sasuke's rotund boss is storming through the isles, his face red. Sasuke flips a coin from the cash register – heads, I keep the job. Tails, I lose it.

It's no surprise to Sasuke that it's tails.

_Naruto sits rather blissfully at the dinner table with his feet kicking up and down childishly, occasionally hitting the table. His father is coming home tonight, which is a rarity because he's always busy. Naruto does not mind much, though. His father's the President of Konoha, or as Konoha calls them, the Hokage. He is proud of his father, the Hokage. If anything, he wants to be just like his dad._

"_I'm home!" Namikaze Minato steps into the living room; with a grin that shows off his pearly white teeth (he never needed braces!). He blinks at the small meal that his son has prepared. It is not anything too special – just instant ramen, but it's the first time Naruto made a meal by himself. And to the ever-busy Hokage, instant ramen is a hearty meal. "Wow, Naruto, you made this by yourself?" Minato exclaims as he hangs up his coat. He is proud of his son, the troublemaker. Sometimes, Minato wishes he is like Naruto – carefree yet caring._

_Naruto mimics his father's toothy grin, except a few of his front teeth is uneven. Minato takes his seat across from his son, taking the chopsticks and beginning to eat. They talk awhile – about school, about work, about students and about subordinates. Sometimes, Minato accidentally lets slip about confidential things, but he assumes that his son won't think too much about it. Carefree, remember? _

"_Dad, last time you talked to me you said something about a war," Naruto says after he drinks down the warm soup. "Didn't you? Hey, Dad? You told me, remember?" He looks up at his father with his wide, blue eyes. _

_Minato falters a little, then quickly says, "There isn't going to be a war! I never said that!" He gulps down the soup, too, in the same fashion as his son. But even if Naruto gets bad grades in school, he is clever. He knows when someone is lying to him. Naruto rolls his eyes, and stands up. He says good-night to his father and leaves to go to bed. Minato wonders, _What age do kids have to be before telling them things adults should know? _If Kushina were around, then perhaps parenting will be a simpler job._

_But Kushina isn't around. Minato does not tell Naruto that his mother died of childbirth. It's because he is already thinking ahead – to the point when Naruto might blame himself for his mother's death. He's heard about kids like that. Minato does not know if he's being too cautious, but it's better safe than sorry, right?_

_The Hokage's cell phone rings (it's his work phone). Minato picks it up. "Hello?"_

_In the meantime, Naruto is pressing his ear to the bedroom door. The kitchen is right next door, and he means to hear everything that his father says. If he's going to be Hokage when he grows up, he has to know everything about the country he's going to rule, right? _

"_Alright…I know. Watch out, yourself…It's…the Uchiha, right? It is. Okay. Alright, alright, I get it…! Eh…? His name's Itachi. Yeah…but why? He's too young!" Sigh. "I get it. They won't get to me, yet…" Another sigh. "I'm staying home…what? I can't…" Groan. "No, I'm staying home, and that's final. I need to watch Naruto. Yes, I know. Ok. Thank you. Bye."_

* * *

_Naruto wakes up in the middle of the night because of very light footsteps outside his door. This is odd, because Naruto is typically a deep sleeper. Something is tugging at the seven-year-old's chest. A bad feeling. Not a good thing. "Dad?" Naruto opens his door a crack. His eyes rapidly adjust to the darkness, and that is when he steps out of his room. The house is silent – all Naruto hears are his bare feet padding on the wooden floor. _

"_Dad?" Naruto whispers softly, stopping in front of his father's room. It is seemingly silent in there, too, but the young boy swears he can hear something. So he presses his ear against the door. _

_He hears a voice that does not sound like a boy's yet it doesn't quite sound like a man's. This voice whispers the words, "I'm sorry." _

_Then all he hears is silence. Naruto opens the door speedily, needing to know who is in there. But all he sees is a glimpse of the murderer, his father's light green bedroom walls, the red and white pattern on the blanket's quilt, and his father with a cascade of blood dripping from his throat. That's all Naruto's eyes can perceive before the assassin knocks him out and lays him on the bed, having mercy for the young seven year old._

_When Naruto wakes up, he is at the hospital, even though he bears no injuries. He hears voices whispering all around him, something about his father, the Hokage. All of this does not register in Naruto's head. But nobody tells him who is responsible for this. No one ever tells him. And sooner or later, Naruto loses interest in the topic, mainly because he has a sinking feeling that it's his fault his father died._

* * *

Naruto stands in front of the Uchiha's door, his hand twitching at his side. He groans at himself in his mind. Since when does he really think these things over in the first place? Naruto knocks the door, three times. There is a silence on the other side, and he begins to wonder if he had knocked too hard or too softly. He raises his fist to knock again, and then the door opens – and his fist goes right into Uchiha Sasuke's face.

Sasuke backs away, clutching his cheek. "What was that for!?" he demands. "Well, how courteous of you. Now I know who to ignore when he comes knocking on my door again." Sasuke is about to shut the door again until Naruto slips into the room.

"It was an accident, honest," Naruto says, a smile adorning his strangely whiskered face. "It was just your bad luck that you opened the door when I planned to knock again." The Uchiha scowls at him, and Naruto can already read his face. It is saying: _Don't bring that bad luck stuff up ever again. _He laughs out loud as another thought bubbles up to the top of his brain. _The Uchiha have their scowl, the Uzumaki have their smiles._

The scowl remains on Sasuke's face. "Yeah, sure. An accident."

Naruto smiles. "So, did you get fired? From your job?" The Uchiha hesitates, and then shakes his head. "You got lucky that time. Huh. Maybe it isn't a curse, after all." He sits down on the couch, uninvited. Sasuke keeps glaring at him, and Naruto thinks that it's because he's still mad about the unintentional punch in the face. Either that or it's because of the curse thing.

"I didn't get fired because I begged the boss not to fire me. And I swear, he only let me stay because he's a gay pedophile, that fat fool," Sasuke mumbles only to make a point. "Why are you here anyway?"

"I wanted to talk to you," Naruto responds as if it was the simplest answer to the simplest question in the world.

Sasuke looks away from his neighbor, the idiot. "If we talk will you leave me alone? If my brother comes in and sees you here he'll bore me to death with these lectures." He focuses his eyes on the wall, pretending it is the real Mona Lisa. To be brutally honest, Sasuke does not want to have anything to do with someone like Uzumaki Naruto – a carefree dope. He has more important things to do.

Naruto considers this for an extremely brief moment. "Alright. I'll leave you alone." Short pause. "For now." Sasuke rolls his eyes but doesn't say anything else until the blonde asks, "You two…do you guys live by yourself? You and your brother, right?"

The Uchiha's eyes narrow. "Is this some sort of interrogation?"

"No."

That doesn't calm Sasuke down at all, but he tentatively answers, anyway. If he satisfies him with a good amount of meaningless information, then maybe he'll leave him alone. Besides, the Uchiha are also known for being good liars. Itachi, being the primary example. "We do. Why do you want to know so much about me?"

"Uhh…I don't know," Naruto replies, even though it is a lie. He just doesn't want to tell them about his father right now. He's already had enough bad dreams for tonight. "Anyway, do you really have bad luck?" _Whoops, wrong question, Naruto, _he thinks to himself. Sasuke's going to kick him out now – Naruto is anticipating it.

But, surprisingly, the Uchiha does not make any violent moves. Sasuke just rubs his temples in irritation. This dimwit is as irksome as many other ditzy fools in Tokyo. Good to know his hometown is a typical city. Sasuke would like some variety every once and a while. But Sasuke plays along and answers without saying any words. He takes out a quarter and flips it. Tails. Yet again. He shoves the coin at his neighbor's face as an answer.

Naruto blinks. "So…that's a yes?"

"Of course it is, you dumbass."

He laughs. "Just making sure!"

"Hn."

"You have no sense of humor," Naruto observes.

Sasuke rolls his eyes – again. "Now you notice." Another stupid question and Sasuke is ready to chuck the blonde's sorry ass out the door, and possibly through the wall. Only something of that level can quench the easily irritated Uchiha's anger.

"Why do you live alone? I mean, with your brother?"

And Sasuke, who was getting ready to strangle Uzumaki Naruto, stops and thinks of a good way to answer the question without getting some sort of 'I feel so sorry for you!' bullshit out of him. He got that a lot in Tokyo, so should Konoha be any different? Should the world be any different? For the first time in Naruto's visit, Sasuke looks him in his bright, blue eyes. He finds himself answering honestly. "They died. When I was seven. In a car crash…Now get out of here!" In the end, he does strangle Uzumaki Naruto until he forces him out of the apartment.

"Oi, oi! That wasn't nice!" Naruto yells. Sasuke locks the door and then looks through the peep hole to check if Naruto left the hallway and retreated back into his apartment yet. He hadn't. Sasuke opens his mouth to yell something – anything, to this dumbass of a neighbor. Instead, he hears this. "My dad died, too. When I was seven. He was killed."

There is a long silence between them. Somehow, Sasuke can feel Naruto on the other side of the door. Something is telling him to open it and actually have a real conversation with him, but he doesn't. And Naruto waits on the other side until he hears footsteps (It might be Itachi). He does not want to get Sasuke in trouble, so he finally recedes back to his apartment, leaning against the wall where he might be able to feel Sasuke on the other side.

* * *

Itachi does not bother to leave his sleeping younger brother a note as he pulls on his shoes and leaves the apartment. He'll be back before Sasuke wakes up, anyway. Itachi steps into the hallway, feeling a bit of the humidity that is invading the room from an open window _(Konoha's summers are always so hot…)_. He closes said window and then walks to the room next to his, number 664, Uzumaki Naruto's (it was no surprise to the Uchihas that their room was 666).

He knocks loudly twice on the door, not giving a damn if the hyperactive blonde isn't so hyperactive at night. Crossing his arms, Itachi waits for just one minute until Naruto opens the door with a silly hat on his head, orange pajamas and a black t-shirt. Naruto looks up at the taller man with his fatigued blue eyes. "Who are you? What the heck do you want?" he asks, obviously grumpy with the idea of someone randomly knocking on his door in the middle of the night.

"Uchiha Itachi," Itachi answers the first question promptly. Naruto seems to jerk awake at this – it is the exact reaction that the Uchiha anticipated. He adds, "And I want to come in." Naruto's eyebrows furrow together as he steps aside to let Itachi into his apartment. It's another reaction that Itachi predicted. Naruto wants to know about his mysterious new neighbors. Well, people used to feel that way in Tokyo, too. But it's Konoha, and Konoha's different. Itachi knows that.

Naruto is still standing at the doorway with the door wide open. After thirty long seconds of silence pass, it finally dawns on him to shut the door. "So…" he says, wiping his hands on his pants for no particular reason. He never met Uchiha Itachi personally, but for some unknown reason, Naruto feels as if he's known him before. "What do you want to talk about?"

Itachi towers above the Uzumaki. Naruto steps back, already feeling intimidated by such a presence. "Didn't my little brother tell you to stay away from him?" He interrogates with a low voice.

Still rather frightened by Sasuke's older brother, Naruto answers the question without arguing. "He didn't say that," he answers slowly. The he rapidly adds, "He might've hinted it once or twice."

A ten second silence follows after this, and during those ten seconds Naruto decides that this is one of the most awkward/frightening situations he has ever been in. But it possibly comes second to when Sakura rejected him using all of his 'disgusting habits' as an excuse to not go out with him. Not to mention her extremely loud voice. And it was in front of the entire school.

Itachi mumbles something under his breath, and Naruto can only make out the words _Hokage's, to kill us, probably, soon. _The second phrase caught his attention at first. Then the first phrase. What does the Uchiha have to do with the Hokage? Suddenly, Naruto feels Itachi's eyes on him and he realizes that he had said that aloud.

"Uzumaki…Naruto," the Uchiha says, not even bearing to look the boy in the eye. "Stay away from us. Stay away from Sasuke. I know you've been talking to my younger brother. But I don't know how you found out about this _curse._ Either way, I recommend that you back out of this. Immediately." Naruto's eyes follow Itachi as he exits the apartment without saying another word. The Uzumaki releases a held breath, thankful that he was not slaughtered by Itachi.

Naruto takes out a coin and flips it in the same fashion Sasuke did just a few hours ago. It came up as heads. A smirk creeps its way up onto his tan face. The Uchiha may have bad luck, but Naruto's known for having good luck…at everything but romance.

Meanwhile, Itachi stands with his back to room 664, his eyes focused intensely on the ground. He did not see that penny there before. Even if he did, he could have sworn that it's face down, just like the rest of the pennies he finds are. Itachi hastily picks the copper coin up…and it really is face-up, isn't it? A tiny smile pulls the corners of Itachi's mouth up, despite his efforts to remain pokerfaced.

_Maybe Uzumaki Naruto might actually be good for Sasuke._

* * *

"What…the hell do you want?" Tsunade wants to know why someone decided to call her in the middle of the night. What could be so urgent? Konoha is a typically peaceful country, therefore these 'emergency calls' are not very frequent. And Tsunade is typically irritable when she can't get a good night's sleep. Really, why did she even decide to be Hokage…?

There is a short pause on the other end (Tsunade will pummel Genma later for not being quick and to the point). "Tsunade-sama, the…it's the Uchiha. They're back at Konoha."

Tsunade's grip tightens around her phone at the mention of the name Uchiha. She had thought that they had been exiled when she first became Hokage, but maybe she was wrong. _Of course they'd be persistent…it's their hometown, after all, _Tsunade thinks, letting her softer side get the better of her for just one split second.

"What should we do about it?" Genma's voice seems especially apprehensive. "There are only two here – Uchiha Sasuke, the youngest son of Uchiha Fugaku and Mikoto…and Uchiha Itachi."

_Itachi? _The mention of that name always made men shake their heads and women whisper to each other behind their hands. Tsunade heaves a sigh, thinking about the chances of history repeating itself. She highly doubts it. "Don't do anything. Yet. I'll have one of the best take them in."

Genma ends his report there and hangs up. Tsunade lies back down on her bed and stares at the fan on the ceiling, then the light green wall, then the window. She finds that she can't sleep and then sits up again, looking down at an old red and white quilt that she had insisted on using. The last name Uchiha overruns all her other thoughts for the rest of the night. She cannot let this problem be overlooked.

_Chapter Two End_

* * *

Hooray!! Okay, please review, guys. I want to know how you feel about this and what you think about my little mystery…Thanks for reading and I will work on updating soon!


	3. Banana Split Sundae

Whew, thanks for the reviews. And sorry if there was too long a wait for you guys. School work is getting harder and tests are coming like crazy. Anyways, here is your chapter, and I hope you enjoy!

Oh yeah. I just recently spilled salt. And the next day I accidentally dropped a handful of change down the drain. This story's rubbing off on me.

* * *

_Chapter Three: Banana Split Sundae_

If Tsunade turns her revolving chair to the large windows behind her, she can get the second best view of Konoha. The first best is the mountains that take up the rest of the island, but Tsunade still fully appreciates her window. Staring out at it gives her a good idea of what kind of place she is protecting. Watching the tiny ants that are people go about their business on the ground informs her that she's either doing a good job or a bad job.

But ever since she followed in her grandfather's footsteps and became Hokage, she's known this common lesson – everything is not what it seems. Looking at Konoha, you might think that it is a more peaceful city than others…but most people know that Konoha has the same amount of dangerous people as the next city.

Tsunade's first job as the Hokage definitely taught her that.

She turns her chair back to her desk and reaches for the phone. She does recall telling Genma that she'd have 'the best' taking the remaining two Uchiha into custody. After dialing a number and jamming the phone close to her ear, Tsunade counts three rings until she hears a familiar voice lazily drawl, "Hello?"

A wave of relief passes over the Hokage as she leans back in her chair. Thankfully, Kakashi actually decides to pick up his phone. He typically does not answer or call back until three or five hours later. "Kakashi, we've got a problem."

"You've got the wrong number. Houston lives next to me."

"Does the name _Uchiha_ ring a bell?" Tsunade asks loudly and a little too animatedly. Kakashi, the alleged 'best' is not as excellent as many people put him up to be if you get to know him. _He reads porn, for God's sake!_

Kakashi doesn't miss a beat. "Okay, who's still alive?"

"Uchiha Itachi." She accidentally pauses for effect (an effect that isn't needed). "And Uchiha Sasuke. The two sons of Uchiha Fugaku and Mikoto, who both supposedly died when the moved out of Konoha ten years ago…you get all that? Go and talk to the two of them and get them into custody, hopefully without causing a fight." Tsunade shuffles through some paper. Shizune darts beside her, places a piece of paper in her hands, then runs away, apparently busy.

"Any extra information?"

Tsunade stops and thinks for a while as she looks at a file of paper that Shizune just handed to her. "Yes. Make sure Uzumaki Naruto does not get involved."

* * *

Uzumaki Naruto is not an expert at contemplating. He slept on the idea of Itachi's threat and woke up having no idea what exactly to do – talk to Sasuke and possibly get pummeled by Itachi, or don't talk to Sasuke and…be bored for the rest of the summer. The second choice seems more logical, but Naruto is always known to be the precarious type.

In the end, Naruto left the deciding to a flip of the coin _(With all the good-luck bad-luck stuff going around, flipping coins is the new trend! _he immaturely figures). Heads, he talks to Sasuke. Tails, he'll leave him alone.

It's no surprise to Naruto that he got heads.

After waking up at six a.m., he gobbles down his new cup ramen and changes into clothes that, for once, were not sprawled on the ground, inside-out. Naruto had no idea why, but he is nervous as hell. He checks himself in the mirror before leaving the door, and then kicks his own shin once he steps out of his apartment for acting like such a girl. What would Sasuke care if he knocked on his door looking better than usual…?

Naruto clears his throat _(Why does it seem like I'm picking him up for a first date?) _and then knocks on the door. He hears some groaning and footsteps approaching the door. Naruto stops himself from knocking again, to avoid a replay of what happened yesterday. Sasuke answers the door, his usually well-kept raven hair in a tousled mess, a tired expression, and wearing a black shirt and blue pajama pants. "What the fuck do you want?"

The blonde blinks. It still hasn't occurred to him that it's six o'clock a.m. "I came to visit."

"At _six_ in the _morning_?" Sasuke exclaims.

Naruto's face fell, but he tries to regain his composure. So what if he forgot to check the time? It's probably part of Sasuke's bad luck. "Well, aren't you the morning person. I'll be polite this time – can I come in?" He doesn't wait for an answer. Naruto slips in under Sasuke's arm, for the first time feeling Sasuke's body against his. Something about it made his heart jump and made the heat in his body go down south, but Naruto merely bites himself, pretending that it's just because it's too early for his body to function correctly.

"Who is it, Sasuke?" Naruto jumps at Itachi's voice, slightly gruff from sleep. Naruto turns and makes painful eye contact with Uchiha Itachi. Apparently, Sasuke doesn't have to answer his big brother. "Oh. It's you."

Naruto almost shuts his eyes, ready for an explosion of fury and fists. But he doesn't receive anything, to his surprise. He watches Itachi as he walks out of the room and into a different room, leaving the two teenagers alone. Naruto gives him a mystified look – what happened to the threat? Sasuke gives Itachi a puzzled look – what happened to 'be anti-social?'

"What do you want?" Sasuke asks again, maybe a little less ruffled up by the disturbance. To Naruto, this is a good sign. To Itachi, who is listening in on their conversation, it is predictable sign – he can read his younger brother like a picture book (one of Itachi's favorite characteristics).

"I wanted to ask you if you we can hang out," Naruto simply says with his toothy grin. Sasuke gives him a bewildered look. The blonde rethinks his words. "Uhh, not like that. I mean…with friends. You're new, and you can't keep yourself cooped up inside your apartment forever, you know what I mean?" He keeps grinning, wondering how in the world his words came out like it did. Saying it like that…it's like asking someone on a date (and Naruto's convinced he's not gay!).

Sasuke's confused look remains as his dominant expression. Little does he know, his big brother can sense that he actually _wants _to go with Naruto. "I don't think I-"the younger Uchiha begins.

"He can go."

Both Naruto and Sasuke jump a little at Itachi's sudden exclamation. The older Uchiha is standing at the doorway, crossing his arms and looking at Naruto with an awfully staid facial expression. "He can go." Itachi repeats in a deadpan. It's enough to make it sound like he's forcing Sasuke to go.

The younger brother looks at Itachi, extremely baffled by his brother's sudden change of heart. "I can?" he asks, just to make sure. Well, it's not like he actually wants to go.

Itachi nods. He mouths to Naruto, _'I'm trusting you.' _before he leaves the room. Naruto smiles from ear to ear, excited to introduce his new friend to the others. Maybe this curse is just some stupid thing – nobody will care. Besides, things in Konoha were just about to get boring. A fresh face can do everyone some good.

But in reality, the number one thing on Naruto's list is find out what Uchiha has to do with his father.

Sasuke begins to mumble under his breath as he stomps back into the room to change. He has various scenarios running through his head – one where all of Naruto's friends were morons, one where all of Naruto's friends were girls who would fall in love with him and try to steal his clothes, and one where they all knew about the curse and refused to have anything to do with him. Sasuke hopes that this 'meeting' won't last long.

He doesn't inform anybody that he has other things on his mind.

While walking next to Naruto, Sasuke puts both hands in the pocket of his black sweatshirt. It is the middle of summer, but he hadn't unpacked yet, so he just picked any random thing to wear. And currently, the two of them are dealing with awkward silences. It seems natural, to Sasuke. All of their previous conversations had basically been one person asking too many questions and the other answering to get them off of his back. So how are they supposed to talk about anything normal now?

"You going into senior year?" Naruto asks casually. It seems like a last-ditch attempt to Sasuke, but it works for him.

"Yeah."

"Okay, good," Uzumaki says. "Everyone else basically is. Three of them are going to college now, though." He blinks at Sasuke. "You don't mind me dragging you out here to meet all of my friends, right?"

Sasuke's eyes narrow. "I didn't want to go in the first place." He pulls his sweatshirt closer around him. Is it just him, or is the air around him getting colder? Sasuke sees Naruto fanning himself with his hand, and supposes that he is just going crazy (or it's the curse). "My brother forced me to go," he concludes, as if that would settle everything.

"Your brother said 'He can go,'" Naruto replies pointedly. He shrugs. "Well, you're going, there's no turning back now, right?" Sasuke frowns but nods. Apparently, Naruto's favorite line is _'Never go back on your word.' _This does not make sense to Sasuke. He never said he was going to go in the first place. He just sort of…went. And Itachi, well…he basically ushered him out like parents sending their daughter out to prom. Except there were no pictures and he did not say much of anything.

There are a few minutes of silence where Sasuke contemplates knocking the blonde out and running back to the apartment. Meanwhile, Naruto is wondering if he should even say the words 'bad luck' or 'curse.' In the end, they both decide against it (Naruto, because he wants to actually have a decent conversation. Sasuke, because of reasons unknown).

"Where are we going?" the Uchiha asks out of curiosity.

"To the Haruno restaurant. I told everyone to meet us there," Naruto responds automatically. "We meet there all the time, so it should be no problem." He looks at Sasuke who is now wondering if he was told to bring his wallet. The blonde smiles – Sasuke is sort of easy to read when you really get to know him _(What'll happen once we're best friends? Or more? Why am I thinking about this, anyway?) _"You don't have to pay."

"We don't?"

"No. It's always on the house, but if Sakura's parents find out – oh, that's Haruno Sakura, the daughter of the owners – they'll kill us. So…shhh!" It is no surprise to Sasuke that Naruto is naturally talkative. "And," Naruto adds in a singsong voice. "Did I forget to mention they have the best smoothies?" Sasuke resists the urge to slap his hands over his ears when the idiot begins to whistle. Now he really wants to go back. Maybe Naruto isn't what Sasuke that he was.

"We're here!"

_Too late, _the Uchiha thinks bitterly. He realized that his 'new friend' is a moron a bit too late. Now he has to meet more morons. If possible, they may be worse than Naruto. If possible.

He sheepishly follows Naruto into the restaurant, which is very crowded (the Haruno restaurant has excellent early breakfasts!). Naruto begins to stand on his tip-toes to try and spy one of his friends out of the crowd. Sasuke shrinks into the corner of the room, glimpsing a pink-haired waitress dashing around haphazardly with two trays balanced on her hands. If she's one of Naruto's friends, Sasuke's nightmares will have come to a reality. The last kind of person he wants to meet is a girl with pink hair.

"Sakura-chan!" Naruto's loud voice pierces the restaurant like a female's frightened cry, causing many people to jump and cover their ears. He waves his hand, accidentally hitting an old woman's glasses off her nose. Sasuke's eyes widen at the clumsiness and ignorance of Naruto. _So he _is_ that bad._

The pink haired girl turns with her emerald eyes gleaming with anger. Sasuke groans in his mind. _Hopefully she isn't like the other girls I've met – high-tempered and stalkers of any hot guy they see. _

"Naruto!" she stomps over, thankfully her arms are relieved of the trays of food. "Didn't I tell you that this is a public restaurant? I can't bend to your every need! I'm not on break, either, so beat it!" She turns and swiftly gains her composure, politely asking a family if they'd like dessert. Sasuke figures that she _is _like the girls in Tokyo. Or rather, like any other girl.

Naruto says, "Sakura, didn't I tell you that I was going to bring a friend today?" When the girl ignores him, he seizes Sasuke's arm and drags him next to Sakura. "Sakura, meet Uchiha Sasuke. Sasuke, meet Haruno Sakura." Naruto still has not let go of Sasuke's arm, and the Uchiha is uncomfortably conscious of this. He wrenches his arm out of the blonde's grip, rubbing the place where Naruto's hand made contact with his flesh.

Sakura spins around at the name 'Uchiha.' "Uchiha?" she whispers.

_She knows._

"Uchiha?" she repeats, a little louder, to Naruto.

_She's the one that told Naruto._

"Yes, _Uchiha,_" Naruto firmly says. "Say hi, Sasuke."

"…" _I plead the fifth._

Sasuke can tell that Sakura is smiling so hard that her face may rip any second. Either that or he's going to rip her face in any second. He simply nods to acknowledge her existence, and leaves it at that. She lets them sit at an extra table and whispers to Naruto that he owes her big-time for allowing them to take seats before waiting customers.

Sakura shakes her head as she walks away, finally understanding why people use the term _devilishly good looks._ She clears out a now vacant table hastily and sets new, gleaming utensils onto it, trying all the while to not think about the Uchiha. Not Sasuke or Itachi. Or how anybody might disappear at this rate.

"You called?" Sasuke's eyes narrow when a boy with a huge dog slips in the seat next to Naruto. Just the smell of him makes the Uchiha irritated. Just the smell of this _place _makes him irritated. The boy is a little taller than Naruto and wears something that bears a resemblance to a winter coat, even though it is in the middle of summer. He has unusual red marks on his cheeks that resemble fangs. Sasuke learns just then that the boy's name is Kiba. Parents really need to get better ideas for names.

Naruto grins at his friend. _Probably best friend,_ Sasuke muses. "Sasuke, meet Kiba. Kiba, this is Sasuke, the guy I told you about the other day?" Kiba seems to sit there in temporary confusion until his memory catches up on him.

Kiba smiles, too. His teeth are like vampire teeth. "Yeah, yeah, Naruto couldn't stop talking about you!" Naruto punches Kiba's shoulder, and at the same time a group of girls and one guy comes.

Sasuke stares at the chair that Naruto is sitting in; counting how many times the pattern resets itself. He kind of figured that Naruto would be the popular type with ten million friends. They names spill into his mind – Sakura, Kiba, Hinata, Ino, Neji, and TenTen. Then a few minutes later – Shino, Shikamaru, Chouji, and Rock Lee. And at one point in time they mention four others that just recently moved out of Konoha – Haku, Gaara, Temari, and Kankurou.

He slumps back in his chair, reminding himself that it was Itachi's fault he's here.

Sakura comes later and asks what drink everybody would like ("And it's…begrudgingly…on the house). Everyone merely says 'the usual.' And then all eyes turn on Sasuke, and he feels like a fascinating artifact in a museum. It is a familiar feeling – everyone used to stare at him and his family when he was little. To have it back just makes him slightly sick to his stomach. That's why the Uchiha are more geared towards the silent and invisible yet oh-so visible type.

"I'll pass," he mumbles, the first two words he's really said since he stepped foot in this restaurant. Sakura inclines her head, waits a moment, and then leaves with everybody else's order.

Naruto kicks Sasuke under the table, and mouths, "Socialize!" The Uchiha merely glares at him and starts to count the cars outside.

When he returns his attention back to the group they are all sipping happily on their beverages. Sakura sits down at the end of the table, but she slides a banana split sundae to Sasuke, saying, "I can't just ignore a customer." He stares at the ice cream, thinking hard. _There might be truth serum in it. It's a good excuse not to eat it. Besides, she knows about the curse._

Sasuke rubs his temples for just one second, wondering why he's acting as superstitious as Itachi. _It would be a waste of food_, he finally decides as an excuse to eat it. He stops himself when a scoop of vanilla ice cream is on the spoon.

"What're you all staring at?" he demands. All eleven pairs of eyes are on him, again. They all exchange glances, using some foreign language to communicate with just one tiny jerk of the head. The girls begin to whisper again. The guys continue to make small talk. And Sasuke sits in the corner, now turning the sundae into mush out of pure frustration.

* * *

"See? It wasn't that bad," Naruto points out contentedly as everyone else gradually leaves the restaurant. Sasuke glowers at the Uzumaki under his dark bangs that he just recently decided to sweep over his face for random effect.

Just forty-five minutes ago, as he was mutilating his banana split sundae, he accidentally knocked over a salt shaker that just _happened _to be there. Silently he had taken a pinch of salt and with his left hand and threw it over his right shoulder, something he's seen Itachi do whenever he spilled salt. Hopefully nobody saw that. Unfortunately – and as usual – everyone did.

After Sakura clears out the table she glares at Naruto in full fury and says, "Now get out of here, you dolt." Naruto grins and actually listens for once, leaving the restaurant. Sasuke remains seated for just five minutes later until the blonde comes back and drags him out.

"What're you doing, just sitting there blankly?" Naruto asks, though he is smiling all the while. Sasuke rolls his eyes and decides that the question is too foolish for him to answer. Both make their way through the throng of leaving customers and outside. "So? It wasn't that bad, was it?" Naruto inquires eyes bright and welcome for an answer.

Sasuke shuts his eyes and reluctantly answers the question. "They only wanted to meet me because of the curse that Sakura girl told you guys about." Naruto blinks and almost stops in his tracks, and the Uchiha smirks. It's too easy to figure these guys out. "I'm walking home by myself," he states dully as he begins to move his feet in a faster pace.

Lucky for Sasuke, Naruto _does _still live in the same apartment as him. He groans when the blonde continues to follow him, but pretends he isn't there.

Stuffing his hands into his sweatshirt, Sasuke realizes that Konoha is like a desert. Hot in at day, freezing at night. He wonders how Naruto is doing – in a no-sleeved shirt, baggy pants and sandals. When he thinks about it, he can't hear the Uzumaki's footsteps behind him anymore. Maybe he's taken a wrong turn. Or maybe Naruto found something better to do than stalk him on his way home.

"Hey, Sasuke?"

Sasuke jumps a little and he turns around. Naruto had apparently been pacing his footsteps. "What do you want?"

Naruto's blue eyes shine in the early sunlight. "Might want to watch your path. I see a cute black cat, over there!" He points to the corner where said cat is hiding. Sasuke glares at the animal, until it slinks past, reminding himself not to think about it. He continues walking without giving the rest of Naruto's statements regard.

"Sasuke?"

"Go away."

"Hello?" the blonde waves steps in front of Sasuke and begins to walk backwards as he waves a hand in front of his face. "Apartment in same direction?" The raven hair ignores him, that is, until Naruto begins talking again. "What was life like for you? I mean, before you moved to Konoha?" Sasuke rolls his eyes, and Naruto slyly narrows his. "Answer. I know you want to."

And Sasuke has to admit, he does want to. For the first time in his life, he really has something genuinely in common with someone – even if it is as horrible as the fact that both their parents were murdered when they were both seven. It seems too coincidental. _Does Naruto know that there might be something more behind this? _Sasuke looks at the blonde's eyes, and concludes that he appears to be much too innocent. _Well, _he muses. _Ignorance is bliss._

Sasuke goes through preliminaries. "Do you really want to know?"

"Yeah."

"Then I'll leave it at this – I'm gay. I've known that since I was seven, and it just so happened to be that my mother was homophobic. She couldn't stand to look at me, much less be in the same room. My father was disappointed in me, and…my brother pretty much was indifferent." Sasuke shrugs. "Your turn," he adds, laughing in his mind at how he made this a game. How foolish of him.

Naruto inclines his head. Sasuke's gay? _(Well, _he sheepishly thinks, _I sort of figured…) _"My dad was the Hokage. The night before he died, I listened in on this conversation he had over the phone. It was with one of his subordinates." He strains to remember, and he feels the back of his eyes sting. But no, he will not cry. Naruto has to get this mystery cleared up – for his father. "And they mentioned the name -"

"What're you two doing, standing directly in front of my dojo?"

Naruto jumps and Sasuke merely turns his head in slight curiosity. There stands a man – the owner of the only dojo in Konoha. He has silver (or white, or gray…however you look at it) hair that spikes up a bit chaotically. His entire face is covered with a mask, leave for one, droopy eye that lazily stares ahead. Sasuke's eyes narrow in suspicion. Where has he seen this man before?

"Ah, Kakashi-sensei!" the blonde says, waving. "Sasuke, this is Hatake Kakashi-sensei." He turns back to Kakashi. "We were just walking home," he explains as an answer to his question.

Kakashi raises a white eyebrow. "Oh? Walking while just standing there?"

Naruto looks behind him and realizes that they hadn't walked a far distance from the Haruno restaurant. "Eh…I guess we hadn't noticed that we stopped," he sheepishly responds, scratching his neck. He flashes a smile at both Sasuke and Kakashi. He finally notices the slight tension between the two and his mind begins to race yet again: does Sasuke have a connection with Kakashi?

Kakashi senses this. He asks, "Naruto, can I speak to you, just for a second?" The blonde trails Kakashi into an alleyway. Sasuke follows the white haired man with his eyes, doubt written all over his face. Once Kakashi and Naruto are both out of the Uchiha's sight, Kakashi's lazy eye abruptly becomes serious. "Don't you realize," he says in a dangerous voice, "what kind of trouble you're getting yourself into?"

"What?"

He heaves a heavy sigh. Are all adolescents these days this ignorant? "The Uchiha. A long time ago, I trusted Haruno Sakura with the information on the Uchiha. Or did she forget it and tell you?" Naruto mulls this over. Well, it's either tell the truth and condemn Sakura, or lie and possibly condemn himself. He tentatively nods. Kakashi sighs again. Well, it _was _a long time ago. "Konoha would hate to find its favorite Hokage's son dead."

Naruto looks sideways, wishing that he can see through the wall so that he can see Sasuke. "What do you mean by that?"

"It's written all over your face, Naruto."

"I don't get it."

Kakashi puts a hand on Naruto's shoulder. "The Uchiha are dangerous," he pauses, and then wraps it up. "Especially for someone like you." He pats the Uzumaki's shoulder after he made his point, steps sideways, and walks past the puzzled teen.

* * *

"So," he drawls, sitting there slothfully on the already beaten-up couch. "How was it?"

Sasuke glares wrathfully at his older brother. To him, that's almost like a slap in the face. To him, it almost seems as if Itachi had been _planning _for him to have a horrible time – just because it's something Itachi would do. "How was it?" He repeats heatedly. "Let's see…it was like being an animal at the zoo. Ever feel that way before?" He glowers at him, even though it's no surprise that all of Itachi's answer is _"I see" _and a slow nod.

He sits beside Itachi and leans back against the couch. "Let's move somewhere else." Sasuke anticipates the reaction.

"No," Itachi replies simply and briskly. "And don't you dare complain. We moved back here for a reason. If I say yes, you'll regret it. If we stay, you'll regret asking me." He doesn't notice, however that his voice is suddenly somber and solemn. Well, his pretenses do have to fall every once and a while. Sasuke perceives his older brother's change of tone and he stands up and leaves the room. He shuts the door so that it wouldn't slam, but it would make an audible _thump._

_I'm accepting it, _Itachi thinks. He laughs at himself internally when he realizes he had just said that out loud.

* * *

"_I'm accepting it."_

Naruto pushes off the wall and falls backwards onto his bed after hearing those three words. Eavesdropping has now become one of his hobbies – the Uchiha have very interesting and arbitrary conversations. That just molds another one of Uzumaki Naruto's new hobbies: attempting to decipher what they say.

_I mean, what in the world does _'I'm accepting it' _mean?_

He tries not to think about both Sasuke and Itachi for one night _(you have no idea how truly difficult that is)_. Naruto watches the creaking ceiling fan. He follows it with his eyes so that it does not seem like it's moving as fast as it really is. Before he knows it, his mind wanders to Sasuke – how he completely destroyed the ice cream Sakura graciously gave him. How he shrugged it off by lying, "I'm allergic to bananas." (And Naruto knows he isn't because he heard Itachi complain that Sasuke eats all of the bananas he buys)

He buries his face in the pillow and attempts to remind himself about school – about all the hot cheerleaders with short skirts that were thrown high in the air. And then, all Naruto could think of was Sasuke in one of those cheerleader outfits. Heat rushes up to his cheeks and down someplace else as Naruto sits up and desperately presses his ear against the door to hear something…anything.

"What's gotten into you, Naruto," he scolds himself when all he can hear is the low chatter of the television.

Urgently, he thinks of Kiba's secret stash of playboy magazines. He thinks of his old stash of playboy magazines that are hidden under his mattresses. He recalls the girls of various ages posing provocatively and seductively for the camera, because the camera literally loves them. He remembers the random pop-ups that appear when you search the wrong part of the internet.

Naruto lays back down on the bed and pulls the pillow over his burning face. For a long time, he's convinced himself that _he is not gay _(even though all of his friends continuously hint certain things)The only reason that girls reject him is because they just don't like him, right? It was because they weren't the right one. Naruto settles on that last hope and holds fast.

The last thing Naruto thinks before he bangs his head against the wall is that maybe Sasuke is the right one.

_Chapter Three end._

* * *

When I look back at this chapter I can't help but think that it is sort of pointless, but, oh well. Next chapter will be very exciting, I promise you guys! So please review (it helps my self esteem and writing!)


	4. French Onion Soup

Thanks for those who reviewed! I didn't quite like the previous chapter, either, but it's basically a lead-up to this one. Truths revealed! At least some of them. And I'm sorry for the long wait, but school work is escalating, and a long with that is homework. And the craziness of everything else in my life.

I'm very sorry for the long wait, again.

I realize that the amazing-ness of my writing style has diminished since Blissful Ignorance…I'm trying my best to get that back, so please hold on, you guys!

* * *

_Chapter Four: French Onion Soup_

After Itachi cleans up a final table, he heaves a noisy sigh. The restaurant had closed up an hour ago, but most of the workers kindly left him finish up their work. He does not especially mind. Sasuke hasn't left his room since yesterday, and he finally gets to beat some information out of that pink-haired girl that hired him. Itachi wipes his brow and puts the last chair up. "Do all your workers usually do this to the new guy?" he asks Sakura.

Sakura's face visibly heats up once one word escapes the Uchiha's lips. Itachi is indifferent to this – it's a reaction that is uncomfortably and unnaturally common to him. "Well," she mumbles, clearly scrambling with all of the words that are at her disposal. "Not usually." She takes the blue apron off and folds it neatly; just to get her hands distracted and busy. Sakura apprehensively takes a look around the empty restaurant. "I can handle the rest. You can go home now."

He forces a smile on his fatigued face. She's not getting rid of him that easily. "Tell me," he says as he leans against a table rather haphazardly. "How do you know about the Uchiha?" Itachi enjoys the sight of the color draining from the girl's face as much as he takes pleasure in seeing red flags of embarrassment appear on her cheeks. Maybe it's just in his blood that he's…just a tad bit sadistic.

"I don't know what you're talking about," Sakura replies quickly, making the disappointing move of avoiding Itachi's gaze.

_She's not used to be interrogated, _Itachi observes with a smirk. "Should I take your word for it?" he asks. His trained eyes bore harshly into her wandering, emerald ones. Sakura turns her back on him and makes a movement with her head. Uchiha Itachi isn't sure if she simply shook her head or nodded. He shifts his weight off of the table and leaves the girl there, to ponder over her actions. Maybe the nuisance can be of good use to him and his brother – who knows?

* * *

"I'm telling you, its case twenty-three…! No, don't you dare pick that case, woman! Crap, you guys suck," Naruto mumbles, staring intently at a television set that is not his. Uchiha Sasuke rolls his eyes and prods at the blonde's back with his finger. The slight touch sends shivers down Naruto's spine, but of course he does not say that aloud. "What? I'm trying to watch TV, here." He turns back to the screen, watching as the contestant picks out a case.

Sasuke pinches the blonde's forearm callously. "Go watch _Deal or No Deal_ in your own apartment," he deadpans. This is what happens when you take a mid-day nap with your apartment door unlocked. _Why was it unlocked in the first place? _Sasuke ponders irritably. "Get your ass off the couch, moron!" he yells, his thoughts like dry twigs being tossed into a fire. "I swear if I see your face here again, I'm going to murder you." He crosses his arms when Naruto ignores him.

"Who's going to murder who?" the door opens and shuts. Both teenagers look up and see Uchiha Itachi entering the room and conversation.

"Nobody," Sasuke mumbles. Then he adds, louder, "Itachi, get him out of here!" He points an accusing finger at the idle, blonde drone. Naruto shakes his head at Itachi, meaning _'Please let me stay!' _The oldest man allows a smile to grace his features. Naruto is acting like a second, younger brother, he realizes. His smile widens when he thinks of one of the only way Naruto can get himself into the Uchiha family. (Sasuke's going to murder him later.)

Itachi strides deeper into the room. "What's the harm of it?" he inquires unceremoniously. Sasuke's eyes widen angrily. Naruto sits back in the couch, satisfied with his victory. Despite Itachi's threat, he seems to have won him over in an unnamed battle. "Why _Deal or No Deal_?" he asks as Sasuke sits on the couch next to Naruto, defeated.

"Because," the Uzumaki explains with a wide smile that matches his father's. "It's a game of _luck._" At the word 'luck' Sasuke's eyes dart to Itachi's. The older brother shrugs it off as nothing. Naruto adds, not noticing the brothers' secret sign language, "The models are hot." He turns around, only to see Sasuke whispering,

"_He's a complete doofus."_

Itachi only holds an amused smile.

The female on the television bravely says, "Case twenty-three." The model holding the case makes a dramatic pause. Naruto sits at the edge of the couch, repeating, "I'm telling you, woman, that's the million dollar case!" Sasuke rubs his temples, but his eyes are focused on the screen. Itachi simply wishes to laugh at their rare luck when the audience and the contestant groan.

"Well, what do you know," Itachi murmurs softly his amusement fading rapidly. His eyes are on his younger brother, who just can't seem to take it in. And meanwhile, Naruto is on his feet and screaming at the TV,

"I _told _you so!"

* * *

Finally, Sasuke manages to usher the intruder, Uzumaki Naruto, out of his apartment before slamming the door shut and then giving Itachi an incredulous, wide-eyed stare. His elder brother disregards this and shuts off the television and goes to the kitchen, presumably to prepare a snack or so. "Don't ignore me," Sasuke yells, livid. "You bastard – you're such a hypocrite and a liar," he accuses, raising his volume to catch his indifferent brother's attention.

"Hypocrite?" Itachi repeats, abnormally charmed. "What gives you the right to point the finger me?" He takes out a slice of bread and places it inside the toaster. Then he pivots to face his seething baby brother.

"I you just told that idiot blonde that he can hang around me more often because I'm 'painfully anti-social.'" Sasuke slams his hand against the wall when Itachi pays more attention to the laboring toaster than him. "You're the one who told me in the first place that I shouldn't make any ties with anybody!" Itachi looks at his brother over his shoulder as Sasuke angry tirade goes on. "And now the person you actually _want _me to bond with is this stupid dolt who doesn't know when to give up!"

The bread pops up and the toaster cools down. Itachi seizes the slice and innocently takes a bite out of it. After he swallows, he responds, "He'll be our rabbit's foot." After taking another mouthful of carbohydrates, he adds with a smirk, "He's perfect for you."

Sasuke stands there, dumbstruck for one second. Eventually he deems Itachi too irritating to communicate with any further. He stomps out of the room, yet again, without uttering another syllable, preoccupied with last sentence that left his brother's lips.

* * *

Inuzuka Kiba uneasily pets his dog, Akamaru, as he relays this information to his best friend. "Sorry, but I can't hang out with that Sasuke guy," he confesses a bit too nonchalantly for Naruto's tastes. He anxiously glances at his friend, to check for any signs of disapproval. What he sees is an unreservedly bewildered and heated expression that did not fit his normally jovial and carefree disposition.

"Why not?" Naruto demands ruthlessly.

Kiba sighs and explains in a small voice, "My parents said so. Don't make that face, Naruto; I know I don't usually listen to my parents. But they sounded seriously serious and I actually believed them, especially with what Sakura said the other day. You know, about that curse. My parents actually said it was true, and they looked real mad and worried when I told them." He looks at his friend with a concerned expression. "I mean, don't you remember, back in, like, second grade? We kept hearing weird stuff on the news about a family named Uchiha, but nobody would explain it to us."

"I don't remember," the Uzumaki points out obdurately.

"Yeah, well you don't remember what happens a second ago half the time," Kiba insults seriously. Naruto shakes his head and murmurs curses under his breath. "Man, why do you care so much, anyway? So what if our parents won't let us be friends with this one guy?" He pats his dogs head while saying, "I mean, we lose an opportunity to make a new friend, and we get to keep our lives while we're at it. Don't that seem fair?"

Naruto leans back on the bench and watches a cloud that looked like a humongous bird float past. "It's not fair to Sasuke," is his response. Kiba sighs again and stands up, telling his dog to stand up too. "Where are you going?" Naruto inquires, taken aback by the sudden movement.

"I've got to go finish my walk," Kiba says as he begins walking past. Akamaru whimpers at the blonde, but, as always he follows his master. "I hope you'll think this through right, Uzumaki!" Kiba yells over his shoulder before Akamaru breaks into a jog, dragging the teenage boy with him. Naruto observes them, each one half of a whole, and then stands up to advance towards the opposite direction.

* * *

He never gets tired of the odd looks that he receives whenever he does not join the queue for Eucharist. He knows that he could partake in the religious feast, but he also knows that he can't. The female cantor begins to sing a familiar hymn, and many in the congregation join in. He, however, sits in the back of the church in peaceful silence, remembering the days when he would sing along, too.

Once the mass is over, Itachi remains seated as all the parishioners around him begin to file out of the church, speaking in low whispers and bowing in the presence of the altar. He waits in the wooden seat until the church is completely empty, save the altar servers who are dutifully blowing out the candles and shutting the windows. The priest bustles in and cleans up the rest, along with several ushers. Itachi waits until he is the only one there.

He's not quite sure why he keeps returning to this sanctuary. With a life like his, he knows that he ought to believe that no omniscient being would allow such things to happen to him. Even Sasuke once questioned him about it. Itachi had no answer, because he does not know why the church seems like a place of comfort _(because it was meant to be, right?)._

The Uchiha were never especially religious. They were the type of family that had religion as an option, not a necessity (the type that goes to mass only Christmas or Easter or Palm Sunday). They all received their sacraments without protest, but never deemed them to be anything special. But Itachi knows better than anybody that the Uchiha have many sins to share with the world. He sighs and leans back against the pew, hating the creaking sound it makes against the tranquil silence. _Sasuke always hated going to church, _he remembers with a small smile.

How could Itachi blame him? In fact, Itachi recalls Sasuke saying that "God apparently hates us, so why should I worship him?"

The tiny smile disappears as Itachi also thinks of his favorite psalm – psalm 22. _My God, My God, why have you abandoned me?_

Those specific words never failed to intrigue Uchiha Itachi. He stands up and leaves the church, his thoughts trailing behind him like a bride's wedding gown, weighing him down while changing his life.

* * *

"Welcome to the Haruno Diner." Itachi says as casually as possible while eyeing his customer cautiously. The white haired man sits alone at the table, without even looking at the menu that has been neatly set before him. His lazy eye is locked directly at Itachi's with odd resolve. "May I start you off with something to drink?"

Kakashi shakes his head.

Itachi's eyebrow twitches along with the corners of his mouth, which is in an inflexible smile. _If you're going to be here, then eat something. _"Then something to eat?" he pushes on, trying to be a good waiter and not give in to the thoughts seething dangerously in his head. "Our soup of the day is French onion soup," Itachi offers stiffly. He heaves a sigh, giving up the waiter act. "What," he growls in a low voice, completely different than his 'nice' voice, "do you want?"

"I was going to say French onion soup, but if you insist," Kakashi says, sitting up. "I'd like to know why you and your brother are back at Konoha." He folds a napkin in his hand and then unfolds it when Itachi remains silent. "No answer? You do know that Konoha exiled the Uchiha. I don't know how you got back in but you can't stay. And if you _want_ to stay, you must have a death wish." He stops talking. Itachi can see a smile through the unusual mask that covers his face.

The Uchiha opens his mouth to say something until Sakura yells at him to stop conversing with the customers and get a move on. "I'll get back to you," Itachi says in a low voice. He sucks in a breath and turns to a family who are waiting patiently for their waiter.

When he does get back to Kakashi, however, he isn't there. Itachi deciphers the short conversation in his head, and makes the tough decision. He works until his shift is up and hastily drives back home. _So, _he thinks bitterly, _maybe Konoha wasn't as safe as I thought it was. _

* * *

"Do you have a life? _At all?_" Sasuke challenges heatedly when he finds the same certain blonde standing at his door again. Uzumaki Naruto smiles sheepishly, finding no answer to the question. The brunette rolls his eyes and crosses his arms, resolute. There is no way in hell that he's going to let him step inside this apartment ever again.

Naruto looks into Sasuke's unyielding eyes with his own blue ones. "I want to talk to you," is all he can manage to say. Sasuke cocks his head questioningly. Naruto answers, "Seriously. I need to talk to you." _(Want to need in a few seconds?) _He does not wait for an answer – instead, Naruto slips into the room the same way he did last time, in-between Sasuke and the doorway. "It's about your curse," he coughs out.

Naruto receives the reaction he was anticipating. Sasuke rolls his eyes and sits down onto the couch, already tired of talking about the same thing over and over again. "What about our curse?" he asks loudly and exaggeratedly.

"I want to help."

"No." came the blunt reply. "A million times, no. An incompetent fool like you wouldn't help. You would just make things worse."

"There has to be something I can do! My dad was the previous Hokage! Maybe I can pull some strings!"

Sasuke's eyes are focused on the television screen, not even looking at Naruto. "Someone like you," he explains slowly, "can only help by leaving us alone." He waits for the words to sink in, and then resumes, his voice testing. "Why would you want to help us anyway? Because you're bored? Because you want your life to be a little more thrilling? Because you think that it's just some game?" He shakes his head and says no more.

"I know it's not a game!" Naruto declares doggedly. "I have my own reasons for getting involved."

Sasuke says, "I'd like to hear it."

"I can't just ignore someone who needs my help-"

"How heroic."

"-and I don't want you to move away."

"Those were vague answers, Uzumaki," Sasuke points out candidly. His patience is already running out. He finally takes a look at the persistent blonde, only to confirm that there was something he was hiding. He doesn't ask, however – Sasuke believes that everyone has their secrets, and that one shouldn't stick their noses where it shouldn't belong.

"I know they're vague," Naruto says defensively.

Sasuke rolls his eyes and rests his head on a pillow. The blonde is giving him a migraine. "So," he says tiredly, "you're saying that you know that your reasons are useless, yet you insist anyway?" He scowls. "You really are an idiot. Now get out. I don't feel like talking to anybody, much less you." He shuts his eyes, intending to take a nap. And if Uzumaki Naruto is still in his apartment when he wakes, he plans on bashing the dumbass inside the toilet.

Naruto thinks as hard as his brain allows him. Should he tell Sasuke about his father? Should he tell Sasuke that he doesn't want him to move just yet?

"Sasuke, the reason I want to help you is because-"

He is unintentionally interrupted by a slamming of the door. Uchiha Itachi, Sasuke's big brother, storms into the room with a face that expresses mixed emotions. He does not pay any attention to the shocked blonde. Instead, Itachi commands, "Sasuke, get your stuff packed. We're leaving Konoha." He marches out of the room and into his own room, presumably to get packed himself.

Naruto begins to wonder why his good luck never kicks in when he really wants it to. "Wait, _what?_" he exclaims loudly. He shoots the brunette, who is still sitting on the couch, a puzzled look. "You're moving!?" he yells, pointing at Sasuke with an accusing finger. "Why didn't you tell me? Why so suddenly? You guys just moved in!" The blonde cannot help but think _you made me gay for nothing?_

"Idiot," Sasuke replies irritably. "I didn't know until now, either." He stands to go to his room. Sasuke had just finished packing this morning – it's just his bad luck that his older brother has horrible timing. He knows that he ought to be pleased that he's leaving Konoha, the unwelcoming hometown. Oddly, the mere thought of stepping foot out of the small country's boundaries drains that heartwarming, nostalgic feeling out of him.

Sasuke wonders when he became as contradicting as his brother.

"Why are you moving?" Naruto demands, marching (uninvited) into Itachi's room. The older man makes no movement to acknowledge Uzumaki's existence. He speedily yet neatly takes all of his clothing and puts them into a bag, without uttering a single syllable. "Why the hell are you moving?" Naruto repeats, frustrated.

Itachi sighs as he zippers the bag shut. "Because," he explains softly, "it really is too dangerous here. I was wrong to try and come back, even if it was for Sasuke's sake." He begins to place articles of apparel into a second luggage bag. "You're angry at me?" he says, still without even looking at Naruto. "I'm sorry, but this is necessary."

Naruto glares at the older brother and rushes into Sasuke's room. The younger boy had messily finished packing – to Naruto, it seems as if he's in a rush to get out of here. Rage and dejection rise in the blonde's chest, but he pushes that away. "You're just going to leave, aren't you?" he says stridently. He can feel his voice breaking. Naruto's only met Sasuke for a few days, and he already feels as if he's losing his best friend.

Sasuke silently nods as a reply. The brunette checks the room one last time, to see if he left anything behind. Somewhere, deep in Naruto's mind, he wishes that Sasuke would leave something behind. It can be anything – anything more than a memory that can fade as the clock continues to tick. Sasuke picks up his two bags (apparently, he doesn't carry much around) and makes his way out of the room. He quietly shoves his way past Naruto.

By the time Sasuke left his own room, Itachi finished packing. The older brother advances into the room and nods at his younger brother. There is no reaction from Sasuke.

"So, you're just going to run away?" Naruto bellows, his back to the two brothers. He anticipates silence as their response, but one of them actually speaks.

It is Itachi. "We're not _running away._ We're trying to live for another day."

"But you're just going to give in, that's it?"

Sasuke's hands clench the handles of his bags. What should he do?

"Quit trying to preach me with your childish ideals. If we stay, it's like one man choosing to fight against an army of ten thousand men," Itachi responds briskly. "Come on, Sasuke, let's go."

Naruto opens his mouth to say something, but Sasuke unpredictably beats him to it. "_Two _men, brother," he corrects forcefully and brusquely. He releases the bags from his hands, savoring the noisy _thump _it makes on the floor. Sasuke looks his brother straight in the eye as he declares, "I want to stay." Naruto gawks him as Sasuke repeats it, just to show that he is firm in his decision. "I want to stay."

"You want to stay," Itachi repeats under his breath, as if he is having difficulty comprehending it. He shuts his eyes and says, "Are you sure? You're the one who wanted to leave in the first place."

"And you're the one who wanted to stay in the first place," Sasuke argues doggedly. He pauses, to see if his brother will respond, but when he doesn't he harshly adds, "You can leave if you really want to."

At that, Itachi narrows his eyes. "I was planning on leaving for your own good."

"I do recall you saying," Sasuke says pointedly, "that you were staying for my own good. You're as ambiguous as ever, Itachi." Sasuke does not wait for his elder brother to answer. He picks up his bags and brings them back into his room, cursing himself for making such a decision too late. Now he has to unpack – again.

Naruto glances at Itachi, to see his reaction. Instead, his eyes meet a blank, impassive face, all except for a single sentence that seems to be written all over him. _I knew it. _Itachi raises his eyebrow and takes his bags inside. The Uzumaki follows him, only to see that Itachi hadn't really packed at all.

* * *

"So now what?"

Itachi glowers at Naruto, who dared to ask the question. Sasuke's eyes fall to the ground. Even he has to admit that he doesn't know what's next. So much for his decision. Now that they're staying, he and his brother is the foolish two-man battalion. Itachi shakes his head, disillusioned, when he reads his younger brother's expression.

"Now we until we become next," Itachi answers when his baby brother doesn't utter a word. "Next in line to fall to the ninth circle of hell, along with the infamous Judas Iscariot."

Sasuke mutters, "You exaggerate too much."

Itachi smirks, as he says, sourly, "How so?"

"Who in the world did we betray? What wrong has our family done?" Sasuke queries sharply and petulantly. Never before had he attempted to interrogate his brother – his childish and naïve disposition led him to believing that his family had truly fallen to 'bad luck.' _There's something more behind this, _he thinks, _and my brother knows what it is. _

"I'd like to know, that, too," Naruto chimes in, not wanting to be left out. "I did tell you that I'd help, Sasuke," he also reminds the raven haired boy. The response is an exasperated snort from Sasuke and an amused 'huh' from Itachi.

Says Itachi to Naruto: "I understand why you want to help. But I just can't let anyone know about our…family secrets." _Family secrets, _Sasuke thinks, enraged. _More like your secrets, as usual._ "Besides," Itachi continues, a bit too nonchalant, "you do know what happens to those who really get involved, don't you?"

Naruto does not hesitate to nod. And though he does not confess where he got such information, Itachi is temporarily satisfied (besides, he has an idea already). Itachi begins to pace around the room while he says calmly, "The incidents are as follows: our uncle, the first victim, left to return books from the library along with his son. Both of them never returned, nor were their bodies found.

Sasuke speaks, his voice much more solemn that Itachi. "My teacher, who used to be my father's best friend, was driving home from school. His car exploded – there was oil on the ground, and no one could figure out who, exactly, put the oil there."

"Our cousin's girlfriend died when she just went out to walk her dog. The dog died, as well. Our godparents died, too. So did the rest of our clan, and many of its close relations," Itachi finishes, closing the conversation before he drags Sasuke into an emotional breakdown. "Do you really think you'll live when nobody else did?"

Naruto ignores the question. "It sounds more like," he says, mind racing. "You're being targeted."

Itachi sits down, traces of a smile on his tired face. "Well, well," he says, looking at the blonde with disbelief. "At least someone's got something right."

_Chapter Four end._

* * *

Finally, I finished. I'm so very sorry for the long wait, but I suffered a little bit of writer's block. Thanks for waiting, and please review, as always!


	5. Lukewarm Water

Honestly, I'm shocked at the number of reviews. I've never really received as much as I did now, at least, not in the span of a few days. Thank you all so much!

You guys motivated me to write faster, so here it is. Sorry if I made you wait a bit too long. And sorry that this chapter is a bit short. A lot of information is in it, and it was slightly harder to write than usual (I'm not so good at constant dialogue).

And I suppose I shouldn't talk anymore. Here's the chapter.

* * *

_Chapter Five: Lukewarm Water_

Sasuke turns the word over in his mind, like he would to a cool stone in his hand. "Targeted?" he asks, sounding more upset than he is inquisitive. "What do you mean by targeted?" he repeats again, his head and chest throbbing horribly. All these years, Sasuke's brother made him believe that the reason for the adverse disappearances was bad luck – and _now _he chooses to tell him that it was because they were being under attack? What had the Uchiha done to deserve such a fate?

Uzumaki Naruto is equally mystified. Sure, this explanation made more logical sense, but it's still puzzling, nonetheless. The answer gave birth to many more questions that seethed internally. "Who's targeting you?" Naruto asks, eager for the answer. "Why? What happened?" The questions cascade out of his mouth in haste. "Does it have something to do with Konoha? What did the Uchiha do? Why are you two the only survivors? How did the rest of your clan die?"

The person that the teenagers are interrogating, Uchiha Itachi, remains silent for quite a while; as if he cannot believe he just told the two of them what is really going on behind the scenes. "We are being targeted," he verifies at last. Sasuke swears under his breath, and Naruto holds his breath. "We betrayed the village, Konoha."

"So _Konoha's_ targeting us." Naruto flinches – Sasuke spoke the name of his homeland with such malevolence and fury. That offended Naruto deeply. "So that was why nothing really happened to us while we were at Tokyo," Sasuke figures out, still obviously furious. He glares at his older brother, "Why, then? Why did you have us move back to Konoha, the place were our guillotine lies?"

_The Uchiha do have a habit of over-exaggerating, _Naruto thinks fearfully. He scratches the back of his head fretfully. He can never imagine something as brutal as a guillotine within a mile of this diplomatic city, let alone inside of it.

"Because," Itachi responds evenly, "I thought – no, I knew – that it would be good for you." A measured, soft smile spreads across his face (and it just incenses his baby brother even more). "And I was right."

"I don't understand what you're talking about."

"You'll understand soon."

Naruto pipes in, not wanting to be left out again. "But what about Konoha? What made you betray them? How'd it all start?" He insists on the answer and the truth. They can get side-tracked later.

Itachi's eyes are fixed on the Uzumaki's perplexed, azure eyes. He answers only one question, as if the others were not posed in the first place. "It all started," he explains slowly, so that he would not have to repeat himself, "When the Uchiha assassinated the Fourth Hokage, Uzumaki Minato."

Naruto visibly recoils at this. _I knew it!_ Itachi also does not like the predicament they have gotten themselves into – if anything, he wished that this information would never have to be exposed. He had planned that the truth behind the Uchiha's curse would evaporate when his own death came around. Meanwhile, Sasuke is pelting curses at his brother internally. He is tired of being lied to – and he's especially tired of believing the fibs.

"Konoha's the ones who have been murdering our kin," Sasuke mutters sourly and spitefully.

Itachi nods, to confirm the solemn information. "It was an underground civil war – the large and powerful Uchiha clan versus Konoha. The Uchiha were especially skilled, because we made up most of the police force. But unfortunately for us, we still suffered horrible luck; on the battlefield and in our own, normal lives."

"Why underground, though?" Naruto asks, perplexed.

"Because," responds Sasuke (his knowledge of this shocks Itachi and Naruto a tad bit), "Konoha is a rather powerful nation, despite its lack of population and size. Japan wants to crush us because they feel that we are a threat. If we leave a single opening, Japan will defeat Konoha. If news of a civil war is leaked, then many surrounding nations will attack…and that's the last thing Konoha wants." Sasuke then addresses the other two men's confusion with a simple and forthright, "I'm not stupid."

"And even with the Uchiha's combined force, we still lost," Itachi concludes. "Now, isn't that all you wanted to know?"

Naruto frowns and points out, "You still didn't answer my question."

"Please leave, Sasuke, I have to talk to Naruto in private," Itachi orders his younger brother. He completely disregards what the Uzumaki had just pointedly said. Sasuke gives his older brother a still cantankerous look, but Itachi counters it with his drained look (because he is, after all, tired of dealing with his brother's current, whiny disposition). "Please?" he asks again.

Sasuke glowers at the both of them then pivots and leaves the room, shutting the door with an abrupt slam.

Naruto can't help but snicker. "Sasuke sure gets angry easily," he says, already forgetting the mood of the conversation. "Like a lot of my other friends…a lot of my other female friends."

"I am already aware of my brother's effeminate character," Itachi waves that sentence off as a final joke, before his face evidently become somber. "Naruto," he says quietly, in case Sasuke is pressing his ear to the door. "You like my younger brother, don't you?"

Uzumaki Naruto takes an alarmed step back at Itachi's perceptiveness. "Was it that obvious?" he says sheepishly. He barely knows this Uchiha, but he is already positive that Itachi will be the over-protective type.

Itachi nods, still quite staid. "This is why I planned on moving to Konoha," he informs him. "I actually needed someone to care for Sasuke the way you do – I just had no idea that it would come this fast." His eyes lock on to Naruto's, sending a shiver down the blonde's spine. "I have a job for you, Naruto, and I'm certain that it won't be too difficult for someone of…your caliber."

Naruto has no idea if that is an accolade or an insult, but he anxiously nods anyway.

"I need you to protect Sasuke for me," Itachi says. "Easy enough, right?"

"_For_ you?" Naruto asks after he had replayed the sentence in his head. Itachi gives him an inquisitive look, so he hurriedly adds, "Yeah, I'll protect him and all – and it's because I _want _to, not because you order me to, but…" Naruto hesitates. "I thought that that would be your role as the older brother, too. So why ask me?"

Itachi calls, "Sasuke, you can come back in now." Naruto drops his jaw in exasperation and surprise when the older Uchiha intentionally overlooks him yet again.

The raven haired boy opens the door instantaneously and marches in, still giving them suspicious glares. Still, he does not ask what the conversation was about. Sasuke jerks his head towards Naruto and says (brusquely):

"You can leave now, you know."

Naruto looks to Itachi, who seems to be in another world (he is just staring at the blank television screen, as if it's on and has a very intriguing show playing). He shrugs and decides that he can invade their apartment for a little longer. Naruto's mental excuse: he wants to beat more information out of the vigilant Uchiha Itachi.

Sasuke sends daggers at the Uzumaki with his eyes. "Leave. I never told you that you could get involved with our family affairs. And I don't want your help – like I said, you can help by leaving us alone. Now get out." He shakes his head and enters his own room, thinking, _I'm so sick of this._ This time, however he shuts the door softly. Naruto does not know if that is a sign.

"You should go." Itachi's voice makes the blonde cringe in shock.

Naruto pauses, and then decides that he can try again tomorrow – that maybe he has invaded a bit too much in the Uchiha's dealings. The instant he is back in his own apartment, he sinks into his bed and lets his eyes lazily stare at the ceiling. However, while his body rests his mind is racing about, skimming over the past half hour of truth and then examining the details (hard work that his brain could never do inside a classroom). Itachi ignored many questions that were a piece in Naruto's mental puzzle. And Sasuke always made it harder than it has to be.

_Well, _Naruto wrap ups internally, _if I don't help them, who will?_

* * *

Sasuke smashes the door firmly shut and locked every lock that he can locate on the wooden material. All the while, he is yelling, "Go away, you fucking bastard!" _The more Uzumaki Naruto knocks on this door,_ he thinks, vexed, _the closer I am to the brink of insanity._ Sasuke is almost tempted to barricade the door, just to show his disgruntlement with his galling next-door neighbor.

"Look, Sasuke, I just want to talk!"

"Well I don't. We don't need your help."

"I won't disappear, alright? I promise."

The words are as slippery as ice. "What makes you think that I _care_?" The sharpness of the words punctures Naruto's chest painfully. "We don't want any more deaths on our hands, whether it's our own or a simple stranger's." Sasuke swallows hard. "You've been an idiot from the start, so this is the last time I'm pointing out your own path. Leave us alone. We'll go our own way, you go yours."

"I'm not moving from this door, then," Naruto replies resolutely. He is ready and fully equipped to camp out in front of Sasuke's door (despite the fact that his own apartment is a merely a few feet away). But Naruto had always stayed true to his word – so why should he fail now? He sits down against the wall, with his eyes glued to the white, wooden door. "I'll stay here until you let me help."

Sasuke does not respond this time. _Naruto can do what he wants, _he figures as he moves away from the door, though keeping it locked. _Naruto can rot in hell, for all I care. _He lays himself down on the couch and rests his head against the cool pillow. Then again, the Uchiha do have a terrible habit of lying – whether it is to others, or to themselves.

An hour later, he finds a glass of water, just sitting on the table (probably Itachi's) and drinks it. Sasuke swiftly and suddenly spits it out. He hates lukewarm water – it is almost like expired milk. When that particular thought passes through his mind, he grabs onto the word _expired, _but then releases it, all the while wondering what is wrong with him.

* * *

Uchiha Itachi eyes the tardy customer guardedly. "I'm sorry, we're closed," he says (cautiously polite but rather perturbed). He's taken jobs at arbitrary restaurants around Tokyo (and Tokyo is a rather abnormal place), but no body came into a restaurant after the closed sign clearly announced the store closed. At least, not while he was on shift.

Kakashi raises one of his white eyebrows then motions for Itachi to move aside. The Uchiha first looks to see if Sakura is watch, and when she is not, he steps warily out of the dojo owner's way. "I said that we're closed," he repeats in a low, treacherous voice. "Please leave. I don't even want to deal with anything personal with you."

"And yet you step aside for me," Kakashi notes knowingly. Itachi's eyes narrow and his body snaps straight in a fluid motion. "Well, Itachi, you didn't heed my advice, I see." Kakashi taps his chin with his finger, apparently pretending to be deep in thought. "Let me guess…it's because of your little brother? And how is he doing?"

"You can just keep talking and talking if you like," Itachi proclaims softly. He opens the door behind Kakashi, allowing the humid summer air to breeze into the room. "Just do it outside."

Sakura hides behind the counter, occasionally peeping up to see what is going on. _I knew the Uchiha were no good, _she thinks calculatingly.

Hatake Kakashi shakes his head, with a clear smirk hidden under his anomalous and conspicuous mask. "Itachi," he declares. "I'm going to have to arrest you."

Itachi remains silent – but both Kakashi and Sakura understand that his silence is a sign of his unenthusiastic obedience. Sakura unwisely looks up a final time, just to make untimely eye contact with her employee, the Uchiha. Itachi mouths something. The pink haired girl can decipher it without delay. Itachi is saying, _Tell Sasuke._

The (obviously undercover) policeman escorts a handcuffed Uchiha out of the restaurant in the dead of night. He does not notice Sakura. She comes to a conclusion that she just got lucky. _What are the odds, _Sakura thinks, _that good luck could be following Uchiha Itachi's last hope?_

_End Chapter Five._

* * *

I know it's only half of my usual chapter, and I'm sorry! I just needed to get things straight until I keep going into the story, and this chapter's like a bridge. Thanks for reading and please review!


	6. Udon and Sushi

Thanks very much!!! I'm very sorry for the long wait. I have a perfectly good reason for this. I made a huge mistake in posting that previous chapter. I had to go through ten million story outlines for this story, and I accidentally wrote the wrong chapter. I had to improvise a new storyline because of that.

Now that I think about it, I prefer this storyline over the previous one.

And I can't help but feel that I keep making my characters OOC….

Anyway…here's the long awaited chapter!

* * *

_Chapter Six: Udon and Sushi_

Uzumaki Naruto has to go to the bathroom. _Badly. _He's pacing speedily in the apartment hallway, sweat visibly glistening from his brow and falling down the sides of his face. He bounces up and down on his heels. He sits with his legs uncomfortably crossed. Meanwhile, his mind is racing. He couldn't just leave to piss and return. Naruto's a man of his word – a man of his every word, down to its very literal meaning.

_Why couldn't I think of this dilemma in the first place?_ Naruto thinks frantically. He checks his watch, and realizes that it's been thirty minutes since he first felt the urge to run to the bathroom. Eventually his bladder has got to blow (and the possibility of Sasuke or anybody else witnessing that is a billion times worse than just mortifying). He looks to his door, and then Sasuke's.

Naruto then takes a deep breath and dashes as noiselessly as possible to his own apartment, and into his bathroom to relieve himself.

Meanwhile, Sasuke opens his door and heaves a low sigh of relief when he sees that the vexing blonde has finally left. He was planning to go out for lunch and then take a stroll around Konoha, but that was after Uzumaki Naruto chose to ruin his plan for the day. Sasuke shuts the door behind him and circumspectly steps around Naruto's little campsite.

"A-ha!" Naruto yells in a singsong voice. The hairs on the back of the Uchiha's head stand up on end. He contemplates facing the Uzumaki in another argument about his family's 'curse,' but decides against it. Sasuke power-walks out of the apartment hallway. When Naruto follows him, he breaks into a jog. After that, into a sprint.

The residents of the apartment building poke their curious (and irate) heads out the door to see what the commotion is. All they see is a raven haired boy dashing at full speed, and a blonde that is tearing through the building in an equal fury. Sasuke races down the stairs, jumping over some and occasionally stumbling over one or two.

Naruto skids himself to a stop, and considers taking the elevator. He changes his mind when he jumps out of a window, onto a tree branch (almost loses his balance here), and shimmies down the tree onto the ground, now waiting for the Uchiha to emerge out of the door.

Sasuke stops when he sees Uzumaki Naruto lingering under the shade of the tree adjacent to the apartment building. Gasping for air, he says, "Leave me alone, you idiot! What the hell do you want from me?"

The blonde furrows his brow. "What the hell do I want? You know, I want to _help._ Geez, I've never met anybody who would turn down a helping hand before you came along." He strides over to Sasuke, and seizes his wrist. "Come on, I'm starving," he says, pulling Sasuke towards an arbitrary direction. "It'll be my treat," he adds quickly yet hesitantly (he can afford another casualty to his wallet, right?). After that one sentence, Naruto saw a bit of reluctance disappear from the Uchiha's face (a bit meaning one thousandth of reluctance).

"You're heading towards your friend's restaurant, aren't you?" Sasuke accuses as Naruto drags him along the sidewalk by the wrist.

Naruto pauses. "Yeah. Why?" He receives an exasperated snort as an answer. Ten steps later, Naruto realizes that they shouldn't have any conversation concerning 'the curse' around Sakura. She'll want to burrow herself into the conversation. And Sasuke wouldn't like that. He turns, still tugging his prisoner along by the wrist, fearful that he might escape if his grip weakens.

"You can let go of me now," Sasuke murmurs.

"No," he responds automatically. Sasuke glares at the back of his captor's head. Meanwhile, Uzumaki Naruto is attempting to recall exactly how much money is left in his wallet. "We're going to eat here," Naruto stops abruptly, making his decision. Sasuke recoils just at the sight of the 'restaurant.' It's one of those run-down stores that you pass every day, but never go into because…well, its run-down. Naruto does not admit that he's never been in this place before.

Sasuke unenthusiastically seats himself in the chair and takes in all of his surroundings, just in something happens that forces him to testify in court. The outside of the restaurant is unappealing, but the inside is very well-kept. The feel of the traditional Japanese restaurant is screams 'family business.' It's either that, or the little boy who is darting in and out of the employee room.

A boy (or a man – he looks to be the age of nineteen) eyes them carefully after they are seated before he stands up and finally asks in a monotone to take their order. Sasuke graciously abstains. Naruto happily orders the udon and sushi. Their waiter leaves them shortly, and then the blonde turns to Sasuke.

"Why didn't you order? It was on me. You could've tried to order everything on the menu to cheat me out of my money."

Sasuke tilts his head and replies, "I don't feel like being indebted to you."

Naruto rolls his eyes. "Do you know what the meaning of 'my treat' is? I'm not going to use this lunch against you. I just want to…uh…have a civilized conversation for once. You know, no slamming doors in faces, no screaming 'get out,' no screaming in general." He sips the water the young man had just placed in front of him. "You get me?"

"I get you." Sasuke glowers at him. "I just reject the idea."

The Uzumaki raises his eyebrows. "You reject the idea of having a civilized conversation?"

Sasuke's scowl deepens. "I reject the idea of having lunch with you. Or rather, even being in the same room as you." Still, he does not mention the fact that his stomach is empty. He had skipped breakfast (which is usually just a slice of plain, white bread), and that one sacrifice had left him starving. "May I leave now?" he asks finally.

"No," came the same automatic answer he had received about ten minutes ago.

"Well," Sasuke says while observing the young boy who is now hiding playfully under a table. "I don't think I need your permission, anyway." However, right after he shifts his weight onto his two feet again his stomach growls noisily. _My stupid, stupid bad luck, _he thinks furiously. The deaths might not be caused by bad luck, but the events that make their lives more complicated and difficult are definitely triggered by it.

A smile plagues Naruto's face at the sound. "_Now _do you want to leave?" he asks. "It's free food! No strings attached or anything."

Sasuke considers this. And then realizes that his apartment is very close – he can go inside and make himself a simple lunch in just minutes. If he does so, he won't have to deal with this…idiot. "Bye," he says briskly before marching out the door.

Naruto swears and leaves a random amount of money on the table before racing after him. "Sasuke!" he yells, seizing his shoulder. The Uchiha spins around to meet his pursuer face-to-face. "Why?" Naruto asks. He hastily adds, "And don't just say 'because.' Tell me why, and say the honest truth."

"Will you leave me alone when I tell you?"

"No, what makes you think that?"

"Then I won't tell you." Sasuke slips out of Uzumaki Naruto's grip and strides back to his apartment with a regal aura to him. Naruto watches him dumbly, wondering what he should do next. Obviously, waiting for him to tell the truth doesn't work. Neither does trying to talk. Or politely asking. Perhaps he might succeed with bribery, but his brains clearly can't match the Uchiha's.

Naruto sits down on the curb, watching cars and people and time pass him by. Despite the buzz of city life that rang in his ears, Uzumaki Naruto almost drifts off to sleep right then and there. The only thing that stops him from falling into slumber is his cell phone that vibrates impatiently in his jeans pocket. He jerks awake and scrambles for the phone a bit too late, missing a call from his friend, Haruno Sakura.

* * *

_How can someone just walk up to somebody else and say this?_

Uzumaki Naruto paces in front of Uchiha Sasuke's apartment door, replaying a simple sentence over and over in his head. Finally he decides that he's foolish, acting like a guy who is trying to ask a girl out on a date (or trying to break up with a girl, too). He swears after he says the sentence quietly out loud, and then kicks the wall wrathfully.

"What?" Sasuke demands, opening the door. The color from Naruto's face drains visibly, for the 'wall' that he kicked turned out to be Sasuke's door. He clears his throat, opens his mouth, and then closes it. "What?" the Uchiha edgily repeats, tapping his fingers against the door.

"Uh…"

"Spit it out!"

"Your brother's been arrested."

The haggard look on Sasuke's face dissipates and is replaced instantaneously with resentment and aggravation. He slams the door shut in Naruto's face just as he is about to say something, puts his shoes on and unconsciously finds himself looking at Itachi's gun. Sasuke reaches out for it, touches the ebony handle, and hesitates. _Should I, or should I not? _

Sasuke can see that carrying a gun around can easily stain their family's name. Again.

But there is a nagging feeling in the back of his head that makes him feel like he needs it. Sasuke picks it up and scrutinizes it. It's already loaded, giving the Uchiha the feeling that his big brother sleeps with the gun under his pillow. He looks at his watch and decides that he has no more time to waste. Sasuke picks up a bag and fills it up with arbitrary things, and then puts the gun in it.

"Sasuke!" Naruto cries out when he exits the apartment. Sasuke ignores the blonde and storms past him, heading unwaveringly towards the police department. "Sasuke!" he repeats, running in front of him and blocking his way. "What are you doing?"

"Getting my brother back before they murder him." The words were riskily loud. If a neighbor were to hear that, they might panic or shrug it off as nothing.

Naruto shakes his head. "Why would they murder him? Your brother has done nothing wrong!"

Sasuke snorts. "Nothing wrong? My entire family has done something wrong. Maybe I did, too, and I just don't know it." With that, he sidesteps Naruto and heads straight forward again. As he continues walking, his ears still perceive the sound of the persistent boy's footsteps next to him. "Leave me alone, Naruto."

"He won't die, Sasuke," Naruto says in a strangely sympathetic voice. "I promise you, he won't die." He takes several steps forward in rapid succession, to catch up with Sasuke's quickening pace.

"You don't have to promise me anything," Sasuke responds impassively. His hand tightens around the strap of the bag that bears the loaded gun.

"I'm promising for him."

Sasuke ceases walking for a split second, but he then continues again. Why would his brother promise when he knows he always breaks promises? And why would Naruto go through so much to help them? The only two people that he ever got to know (and are still alive) are two of the most intriguing people he'll ever meet.

* * *

"Let me see my brother," Sasuke demands bluntly. It is the first thing he says once he steps foot inside the police station. Naruto timidly follows the Uchiha as he storms to the police man behind the desk. "Let me see my brother," he repeats in a poisonous voice that reminds the blonde of Itachi. "Now."

The policeman coughs. He is found guilty of being scared of a seventeen year old (who, I might add, is taller than him and possibly has a deeper voice than him). "What might your name be?" he taking a step back. Sasuke takes a step forward. Naruto finds himself jealous of the policeman for one second, and then shakes himself out of it.

"_Uchiha_ Sasuke." Much emphasis on the Uchiha. "I'm looking for Uchiha Itachi."

The policeman's eyes widen a bit, and he looks through a stack papers on a desk. Sasuke taps his fingers against the wooden desk. The tapping accelerates as time passes, like a bomb that is counting down until it explodes. The demoralized and panicky police officer speeds up in his search. After ten minutes pass of nothing but rustling papers and tapping fingers, the cop discontinues his search and looks at Sasuke with a faded expression.

"I'm sorry, but Uchiha Itachi was never brought in," he says weakly.

Sasuke slams his hand on the desk, causing some of the papers to jump up and float to the floor. The cop and Naruto wince, afraid that the Uchiha would punch someone in the face or kick someone in the groin. Instead, Sasuke turns and leaves the police station without another word, except for maybe a few curses under his breath.

"If they really arrested your brother, wouldn't they have called you about it when they arrested him?" Naruto points out after they left the doors of the office.

Sasuke shakes his head and keeps mumbling incoherently under his breath. "He's gone. That fool got himself caught, and he never got to tell me the truth about my family," he finally says as the apartment looms in their view. And all that stress about the gun for nothing. How stupid of him. "He's probably dead by now," Sasuke mutters so softly that Naruto has to strain his ears to hear him.

"Don't say that," Naruto wrinkles his brow. "I'm sure he's fine."

"You're lying."

_Well, _he admits internally, _that much is true. _To be honest, he has no clue what had happened to Uchiha Itachi. Maybe his capture was confidential, so only the higher-ups knew about it. Maybe he never was taken into custody and he just disappeared. Or maybe he died.

Naruto recalls the message that Sakura had sent to him. He remembered it by heart, not because it was necessary, but because the words stuck to him.

"_Don't call back, Naruto, I'm at work. Just for you to know, I saw something last night. It was after work, and Itachi was here helping me clean up. Then Kakashi came, they talked about, and then Kakashi arrested Itachi. Itachi looked at me and I guess that I was supposed to tell Sasuke that he got caught or something. Can you tell Sasuke for me? Sorry if this sounds a bit too nonchalant. I'm in a rush. See you later."_

_Kakashi. _He probably knows where Itachi is. Naruto looks to Sasuke, and decides that he can rush to Kakashi's house and get back to him later. "I'll meet up with you at the apartment." He receives no reply, primarily because he did not wait for one. Kakashi's place is just around the corner. The Uzumaki turns the corner and rings the doorbell. Then he bangs on the door when he receives no reply. Then he jabs his finger on the doorbell multiple times. Finally, he looks to the side to see that Kakashi's car is gone.

Naruto panics. _He took Itachi with him, wherever he went. _He rushes to Kakashi's next door neighbor, and politely rings the doorbell. He is greeted by a small, elderly lady. Unfortunately for him (and Sasuke), she said that the dojo-owner just disappeared yesterday, without a word. Naruto thanks her absentmindedly after convincing himself that it isn't the end of the world of he can't find Kakashi.

Well, it might mean the end of the world to Sasuke.

* * *

"Sasuke?" Naruto catches up to him before he reaches the apartment. "Hey." No reply. "Are you in some sort of toddler-lockdown? I'm sure everything's going to be alright. Yeah, I know that my word doesn't reassure you in anyway, but, still. I've only known your brother for about a week or two, and I'm certain that he isn't dead. He wouldn't leave you like that."

For the most part, he keeps talking just to make himself feel better. It doesn't take Naruto long to realize that most of the things that he is saying are fibs. Itachi had asked him to protect Sasuke for him, because he knew that his time is coming. At least, that is Uzumaki Naruto's logic (and his logic is known for being accurately inaccurate).

Naruto stopped talking when they approach the apartment. He watches Sasuke as he walks silently, like a ghost, to his apartment, fishing for his keys in his pocket and then unlocking the door. He doesn't want to leave the young Uchiha by himself – not in this kind of dilemma. "Sasuke," he begins again. How long does he have keep talking to a rock? "I'm staying over your apartment."

Sasuke's eyes slide to the side to meet Naruto's, but then his gaze falls to the ground again. "Go away, Naruto." He enters the room and shuts the door on Naruto's foot. "Go away," he repeats, frustrated. Of course, the blonde ignores the command and enters the chamber. "I don't need your help," he says rather softly.

He disregards this and sits puts his hands on Sasuke's shoulders, as if he is going to shake him back and forth. "You do need help, and I'm here to help you," he says. "Alright?" The raven hair falls silent. "You miss your brother, no matter how angry you are at him. You need him to find the truth, and he knows that, so he's not going to leave you until you're satisfied."

"How would you know?" Sasuke accuses. "You don't know him."

"Because," Naruto says, finding no good comeback.

The Uchiha scowls at the insufficient response. He shrugs as an attempt to get Naruto's hands off his shoulders. "Leave."

Naruto releases his grip on Sasuke's shoulders only because his phone begins to vibrate in his pocket again. He looks at the caller I.D. – it's an unknown number. He looks up curiously at Sasuke, who is also gazing inquisitively at the cell phone. He answers the call. "Who is this?" Naruto inquires immediately.

"It's me."

_Itachi, _Naruto thinks, shocked. _How'd he get my number?_

"Who is it?" demands Sasuke.

Naruto swallows hard, and then he tells Sasuke the identity of the caller without even saying his name. "Where are you?"

The younger brother's eyes widen. "Give me the phone, Naruto."

"Is that Sasuke in the background?" Itachi asks. The blonde can hear a smile in his voice. He figures that Itachi is alright…for now. "Don't give the phone to him, Naruto. Don't repeat what I say. Just listen, alright?" Naruto nods slowly.

Sasuke's hand is still extended in front of him, waiting for the cell phone to be dropped into it. "Well?"

"Ignore him for now," Itachi commands. "If you don't, things will turn out to be much more difficult for all three of us. Understand?"

By now, Sasuke has gotten the idea. He snatches Naruto's wrist with a deadly grip and almost wrenches the cell phone out of his hand. "Sasuke, stop!" the blonde says, stepping away from the fuming Uchiha.

"I'm going to tell you this, and you will be the only one who knows until I say so." _Itachi sure likes to give orders, _Naruto frowns, but agrees to the terms. "And you also have to promise me that you won't…freak out. By that, I mean no breaking into tears, no screaming, and no cursing. This conversation has to remain a mystery to Sasuke."

"Okay."

Naruto hears Itachi's breathe into the receiver of the phone before he talks again. "The police will not arrest Sasuke, because he hasn't done anything wrong. But they are trying to catch me and give me the death penalty because I'm the one who initiated this…underground war. Naruto, I know you're opening your mouth to say something, but you better shut it right now." The blonde shamefacedly shuts his mouth, wondering how someone can foresee his actions over the phone when they hardly know each other.

"I know what you're thinking," Itachi says quietly. "Because I was…especially skilled, as they say, I was dispatched by my own parents to assassinate the Fourth Hokage. And I succeeded." A short pause. "Blink back those tears, Uzumaki," he murmurs so softly that the words are very close to being incoherent. "There's still more, and this is when I really need you to keep your mouth shut." Naruto nods his head vehemently. It is the only way for Sasuke to not see the tears welling up in his eyes.

So it was Itachi that he saw in his house that day. So it was Itachi who had ruined his childhood life. He did recall his father, Minato, saying the name over the phone the night of the murder. Why hadn't he held that name close – as a clue that can change everything?

"There's not even an 'I'm sorry?'" Naruto blurts out loud. Sasuke gets suspicious.

There is a brief silence on the other side, and Naruto can hear Itachi's movement. "I don't think it's necessary to point out the obvious…Damn."

"What?"

"I'm out of quarters. Listen, only have about thirty seconds – probably less – so the reason for this cannot be explained. Tell Sasuke that I'm alright, too." A very short pause. It sounds like Itachi is bracing himself for something. "Sasuke's parents," he finally says. "I killed them." And then he hangs up.

* * *

Naruto stares at his cell phone in disbelief. Tears from the first revelation are still stinging the back of his eyes. The second eye-opener is stimulating his need to cry even more. Sasuke stands in front of him, his arms crossed. He glares enviously at Naruto's phone. Why hadn't Itachi called him? Why did he call Naruto instead? He cannot help but feel as if they're both up to something – that they know something that he doesn't. And Sasuke doesn't like that feeling.

"So," Sasuke says. "You're about to cry."

Uzumaki Naruto wipes his blue eyes with the back of his hand. "I just got something in my eye."

He rolls his eyes. "Yeah, right. What did he say?"

Naruto brings up his skill of negotiation. "I might tell you if you let me stay at your apartment."

Sasuke's eyes narrow as he says, heatedly, "He's my older brother. I think I deserve to know where he is and how he's doing. Tell me what you talked about over the phone."

"Well," the blonde frowns. "He never told me where he is. He sounded okay, too. He was using a pay phone, so I don't think calling back would work, would it?" He attempts to avoid the main topic of their conversation. If he does talk about it (or even think about it), he's certain that he'll start bawling on the spot.

"Why did he call you and not me?"

"I don't know. Can I stay at your apartment, then?"

"I don't care."

Naruto shrugs and sits himself down on the couch. He rests his elbows on his knees and buries his face in his hands. The two of them have yet another thing in common – their parents were murdered by the same guy. And they both know that guy. What an excellent surprise _that _is. He looks up and sees Sasuke, draining a cup of milk and then washing the cup.

Itachi had insinuated that he would tell Sasuke sometime. Or that he'd tell Naruto to tell Sasuke. Either way, Sasuke's going to know the truth sometime. But the mere thought of that left a bad taste in the Uzumaki's mouth. How can he tell the Uchiha, who has already suffered so much, that most of his troubles were caused by the person who had been by his side since his birth? It would break his already broken heart. It would make him even more unreachable.

Naruto stands up and approaches Sasuke, who is drying his hands with a towel with an expressionless face. These words slip out of his mouth: "I'm sorry, Sasuke." The Uchiha puts the towel down and looks at Naruto, eyes full of skepticism.

What Naruto was apologizing for, Sasuke never knew. Naruto leans forward and closes the distance between them, wanting a better connection with him, other than murder and tragedy. Sasuke freezes as he feels his tongue slip inside his mouth. It's his first kiss, and he is horrified that the idiot blonde had the privilege to take it away. Shocked, he pushes Naruto away and looks away.

"I don't know what just got into you…and I don't really care," Sasuke announces, entering his room and shutting the door behind him. He touches his fingers to his violated lips. Naruto tasted like ramen, as he suspected.

Naruto looks at the shut door. It certainly was the wrong move, he decides. But the wrong move felt so right.

_End Chapter Six._

* * *

Hmm. I didn't enjoy writing this chapter, but I like it. I'm not so good at romantic scenes, sorry about that. This story had changed from one thing to the other, but I suppose this'll be okay. It's mostly for those who like Itachi playing the brotherly role, I guess.

Anyways, please review!!!! They make me happy and motivate me to be a better writer!!


	7. Sour Strawberries

Thanks again for all the supportive reviews! I've been going through some difficult times, but your comments always make me happy.

And I apologize again for the long wait. There are so much to do, and so little time, you know?

* * *

_Chapter Seven: Sour Strawberries_

Naruto spends the majority of the next day brooding inside his apartment. It isn't something the blonde would usually do, but the events of yesterday struck him as abruptly and as agonizingly as a bolt of lightning would. It feels as if his father had just died all over again – and once is enough for Naruto. Not only that, but the feeling and taste of Sasuke keep tingling on his lips – an endless reminder of that fateful (and rather untimely) action.

After a seemingly never-ending lunch, Naruto began to attempt to convince himself that Itachi did not kill his father. As far as he knows, the older Uchiha is a gentle, calm person. Still, just a few moments after he almost accepts that thought, he is reminded by the words, "I was dispatched." The murder must have been against Itachi's will. _It must have hurt him as much as it did me, _Naruto thinks solemnly.

His eyes automatically slide to the wall. On the other side, Sasuke might be doing the same thing – brooding and considering and wondering. The singular thought of Sasuke makes Naruto jolt up from his tired demeanor. What is he doing, just sitting here and fretting? Naruto runs a hand through his unruly and messy blonde hair in a last-ditch attempt to make himself look a little presentable. He pulls on a pair of orange shoes and then exits his apartment.

Without hesitation, Uzumaki Naruto knocks on Sasuke's door. The door opens reluctantly after a few moments. Sasuke is on the other side. He gives the blonde a hard stare. "Tell me," he demands without even saying a pleasant 'Hello' or a 'Good Afternoon,' "what my big brother told you over the phone last night."

* * *

Sakura sits idly at the front desk of her family's restaurant, resting her tired head on her arms as she slumps over in her chair. Monday is the day when almost nobody comes into this restaurant – it is the exhausting day of the week that typically marks the beginning of work days. As she waits unenthusiastically, her eyes changed their focus point constantly – at the passing crowd of people that did not regard the restaurant at all, and her cell phone that is sitting on the table in front of her.

_Come on, _she thinks, now gazing intently at her cell phone. Nobody's going to come in, anyway. _Ring. Vibrate. Do something._

The reason Haruno Sakura is awaiting the moment for her phone to ring is because, she is confident she'll receive a message. A message that contains some sort of revelation that will mean the world to a certain somebody. Sakura flips open the razor and then begins to play Tetris on it – one of her favorite pastimes that don't seem to make time pass quicker at all.

In the middle of her game, her phone begins to vibrate violently in her hand. She jerks up, her fatigue ebbing away swiftly. Sakura presses the cell phone close to her ear, prepared to absorb every single word that she hears.

"_Haruno Sakura," _a familiar voice says into the phone. _"I'm going to trust you with the truth."_

* * *

Naruto paces back and forth in Uchiha Sasuke's apartment while knowing that it should be Sasuke pacing in this moment. Still, the poor Uzumaki has much to think about. Telling Sasuke the truth will most probably ruin the Uchiha's life (as if it hasn't been devastated already). Naruto's blue eyes continuously meet with Sasuke's obsidian eyes. Rapidly, he always turns away. _How should I say this? Should I even say it? And why did Itachi call me instead of Sasuke?_

The raven haired boy is tapping his foot edgily on the wooden floor. He has excellent reasons for his apprehension, as well. As in, why did his older brother call a teenage boy he had only known for a week? A feeling of rejection and abandonment had descended upon Sasuke Uchiha ever since he discovered about Itachi's disappearance. Now, he is wondering if the sudden and weighty burden of loneliness will ever lift from his already hampered shoulders.

"What's taking you so long?"

The Uzumaki ceases his pacing abruptly, and now he looks Sasuke straight in the eye. He is aware that his mouth is open, yet no words are coming out. He is uncertain if he even wants words to come out. Concluding that he looks stupid with his jaw dropped, Naruto shuts his mouth in an awkward movement.

Sasuke, however, translates that movement to this: _He doesn't want to tell me anything. _Aggravated, he rakes his fingers through his messy, black hair. "Your silence speaks for yourself," he murmurs.

Naruto groans, seats himself on the couch, and then reminds himself of one of the last things that occurred last night. He gives the downcast Uchiha a sideward glance, and then slouches even lower on the couch as he realizes that Sasuke seems to have forgotten about the kiss. The truth is, however, that Sasuke hasn't forgotten. Instead, he had chosen the previous night to selectively fail to remember.

"You're staring at me," Naruto points out uneasily after a terribly long moment of silence.

Sasuke's eyebrow twitches - clearly irritated. "Of course I am," he murmurs cantankerously. "What do I have to do to make you tell me what my older brother said?" He scrutinizes the blonde as if he is an alien from Mars.

Naruto shakes his head free of certain thoughts that dove into his brain when the raven haired boy uttered that last sentence. "I made a promise to him not to tell you anything," he decides to confirm. "And, in case you're wondering, I also vowed to make sure you're safe. So that means I can't leave your side."

"What obligation do you have to my brother?" Sasuke inquires abruptly, hiding his anger and some of his envy. It seems obvious to the young Uchiha that Itachi trusts an outsider more than his younger brother. And with all the things that the two siblings have been through, this scrap of information is certainly a very sharp one - it aches like a precise bullet.

Naruto blinks, somewhat shocked. "Obligation?" he repeats, the word feeling funny in his mouth. "Err," he stammers, shifting uncomfortably under the Uchiha's cold and hard gaze. Naruto knows that, truthfully, he is simply listening to Itachi and doing as he says because he feels he has to – not because he's committed to him or anything of the sort. "I'm not obligated to him," he awkwardly confesses. Still, it may make Sasuke feel better – the pitch of jealousy in the teen's voice is evident.

Sasuke still doesn't seem to like that answer. "Then why do you listen to every single damned thing that comes out of his mouth?"

"Because," he argues back. Naruto bites back the answer that nearly spilled out of his lips, and takes a brief moment to rethink his response. "Because I have to." _Smart, Naruto._

"Because you have to," Sasuke snorts, clearly skeptical.

"Um…" Naruto begins, at a loss of words. He isn't particularly skilled in the art of conversation, and it is obvious to him that Sasuke can interrogate very well. He clears his throat, as a thought returns to his brain. "Have you forgotten about last night?"

Sasuke scowls. "Of course I haven't."

"I'm not talking about the phone call."

"Oh." Naruto spies a tint of red appear on the Uchiha's cheeks before he turns away rapidly. Sasuke is visibly seeking a way to change the subject – and the blonde cannot help but believe that this is a rather positive sign. In the end, the Uchiha gives in. "What about it?" He turns back to face his visitor, and Naruto sees that Sasuke has thoroughly composed himself yet again.

Naruto's eyebrows rise. "What do you mean _what about it_? I _kissed _you." Immediately, at the word 'kissed,' heat crawls its way up Naruto's neck.

"What. About. It." Sasuke repeats yet again, resolution to keep his own embarrassment hidden apparent.

Naruto yells, exasperated, "You asshole!" He stands up and suddenly kisses Sasuke, again. In the only correctly functioning part of his brain, he is counting the seconds that this short moment will last. He feels Sasuke's hands on his shoulders, and his mind dumbly processes this as a good thing. But the two hands shove the blonde several paces away.

"Leave," Sasuke orders like a grumpy aristocrat to his servants. Even though heat on Sasuke's face is extremely noticeable and his emotions are, for once, clearly displayed on his expression. Naruto inspects him for a moment, that is, until Sasuke speaks one word that seems much like surrender. "Please."

Naruto's aggravation completely dissipates. The troubled and anxious emotions that are presently swirling in the Uchiha's chest are evident in every aspect of his physical appearance. What kind of person would he be if he disregards his friend's troubles? Or even attempts to fuel the fire? Without a word, he ignores Sasuke's earlier command and pleads for a decent reason. Naruto wraps his arms protectively around Sasuke, simply pulling him into an absolutely chaste hug.

Sasuke's body stiffens, and then relaxes reluctantly. This time, however, he does not shove Naruto away. He does not order or plead him to leave, and he does not scream at him or demand answers at all. Before Naruto, Sasuke had believed that idiots have no place in his arduous, troubled, and highly unlucky life. They would just make things worse, he had thought.

But with Naruto, he figures that maybe not all idiots will make things worse.

* * *

As he walks the crowded streets of the densely populated city, he cannot help but look back to where he came from. That diminutive island still loomed in the distance, barely visible through all the skyscrapers. Like a ghost, the form of that country will haunt him until his time comes. Whenever he thinks of that place, of the people who live there, regret fills his heart up until it overflows and floods out the rest of his body.

Still, he doesn't allow himself to feel remorse for anything he's recently done. Recently. Because he knows that he can never live down the things he has done in the past.

* * *

Hatake Kakashi isn't comfortable with this. No, sir, he should have never gotten involved with the Uchiha in the first place. That day, about eight (perhaps more or less?) years ago, he had made his own history. He received a call on a rainy night from what sounded like a fifteen year old. Kakashi was about to hang up until his ears perceived a name. _Uchiha. _

He had formed a deal (it seemed to be more like a childish promise, sealed with a pinky swear) with that adolescent that night. Kakashi went fell into slumber wondering what's going on in teenager's delusional minds these days.

The more Kakashi thought about the young man's predicament, the more he shamefully believed it. At least once a month, the teen would call to remind him of that vow. Every time Kakashi picked up the phone and heard the Uchiha's voice, he knew it slowly became fatigued, heavy, weighted, burdened. With time, Kakashi even felt for the growing man like a father.

The first time they both met in person (at least, after they made that agreement) was in the Haruno's restaurant. Kakashi had kept his promise, and he chose his words cautiously when he realizes that Sakura, the girl that seems to always be present in the restaurant, was eavesdropping. Thankfully, that Uchiha had grown to be (or always was) a smart man. Through all pretenses, he seemed to understand every carefully chosen word.

The promise really kicked in just a few days ago. Once out of earshot of Haruno Sakura, the young man had given Kakashi a word of thanks as he drove him to the harbor. "Don't mention it," Kakashi had said in reply. He had accompanied the Uchiha to his destination, and then returned to Konoha.

Now, as the ferry boat passes the boundaries of Japan and enters Konoha territory, Kakashi looks back. He still isn't comfortable with this. Every facet of that promise leaves a bad taste in his mouth. Then he is reminded of how much that person had pleaded for him to carry out this particular task. It eventually got too difficult to say no to such pleads.

It's also rare to hear Uchiha Itachi plead like that, too.

* * *

"He's cute," Sakura had confessed sheepishly to her parents. The two first-time parents encouraged their daughter with light smiles. Puppy love is a natural thing, although they expected their little girl to still believe that boys are gross. "And he isn't gross like the other boys," the pink haired girl chirped on as she regained her confidence in this specific topic. It only took her parents a short amount of time to finally figure out that their little girl's favorite subject matter will be those of the opposite sex.

Later on, in that same day, the Haruno parents changed their lighthearted and cheerful daughter into a heartbroken one. The private school she was going to was much too expensive for them to afford anymore. So next year, in third grade, she'll be transferred to Konoha Elementary School. Sakura threw an unsuccessful tantrum and then locked herself in her room, sobbing.

Her first crush on Uchiha Sasuke swiftly became a failure.

After determinedly deciding to make the best out of her remaining months in that private school, Sakura observed this vital fact. Uchiha Sasuke, who was typically as lighthearted and cheery as the rest of the class, unexpectedly became the pinnacle of teenage depression. And then, just a week after the abrupt change of character, he and his family moved from Konoha.

Nobody bothered to explain what had happened to seven year old Haruno Sakura. The surname Uchiha speedily became taboo, and no child except for Sakura seemed to take note of that.

One adult, however, clarified almost everything to her. His reason was a secret promise – and Sakura was an expert at secret promises, so she didn't ask any questions about the man's motivation.

Soon after the revelation, the name Uchiha faded away from the girl's mind. More significant things, such as fitting in, constantly updating her wardrobe, and attempting to capture the attention of males spilled into her life. The mystery and curse of the Uchiha never crossed her mind until two strange brothers reappear in Konoha.

And then, Sakura remembers her own promise, as well.

* * *

"_You." _

Kakashi stops walking instantly after he hears that voice that is filled with such rage (_Misplaced rage, _he reminds himself). Slowly he turns, expecting to see the younger of the two brothers, Sasuke. Instead, he sees Uzumaki Naruto. So, his little 'message' to the blonde actually worked out. Reverse psychology always works. The thought brings a tiny smile to his face as he prepares to take whatever blame is necessary.

"Yes?" he says, placing the best innocent face he can manage on his face.

Naruto rushes over, looking as if he is going to punch somebody. Still, he doesn't. "Where did you take him?!" he shouts, worried over a new arrival, a mysterious stranger. Kakashi smiles as an answer. "Tell me!"

Kakashi looks wistfully over the blonde's shoulder, to the horizon. "He could be anywhere now." Immediately after the word 'now,' he ducks to dodge Naruto's angry fist. "You forget that I own the dojo," he reminds the teenager. "And what can hitting me do? I doubt you or Sasuke would like it if your anger attracted the police to your situation."

"Where did you take him? You're not really with the police, are you?" Naruto asks, restraining his fists that are still itching for a fight.

"Used to be," Kakashi responds while tapping his finger on his chin. "Used to be with the police." He shrugs, and then pivots back around, as if the sentence he has just uttered is a new way to say good-bye.

Irritable and irritated, Uzumaki Naruto jogs to keep up with Hatake Kakashi's fast pace.

* * *

Sakura cannot recall why it's so wintry in the middle of June. She glances around her as she ambles along the sidewalks, just to see people in shorts and tank tops and bathing suits, fanning themselves with their hands or pouring their water bottles on their heads instead of drinking them. Sakura, who is sporting jeans and a sweatshirt, figures that maybe it's just her.

Anxiously, she rings the doorbell for the Uchiha's apartment. She shivers as she wishes that Naruto isn't home to bother her. The door slams open. Sakura sees Uchiha Sasuke standing there with hope fading away from his eyes. _He was praying that I was Itachi, _Sakura notes sullenly. Sasuke examines her, and then asks, "Aren't you hot?" He gestures to the sweatshirt.

Forcing a smile, she shakes her head. "You remember me, right? Haruno Sakura?" He nods cautiously. "Can I…come in?" Sakura inquires apprehensively. He nods again, still wary. Sasuke leads her into his apartment, and swiftly shuts the door behind her once she enters the chamber.

"What do you want?" he asks with a sharp and vigilant voice.

Even though she is slightly taken aback, Sakura ignores the rudeness of the question and the tone of voice. "It's about your brother, Itachi." She obtains the reaction she was expecting. Sasuke's spine seems to straighten and he holds his chin up higher. His tense hands ball up into fists and his eyes regain that same hope she saw when he answered the door.

"What is it?" the impoliteness has disappeared. "What do you know about him?"

Sakura's mind flashes back on a promise she made to the white-haired man with a promise to keep. Customarily, she is not one to break a promise. But earlier in the day, she had reflected on her childhood crush on Uchiha Sasuke. Seeing him again in the restaurant only struck a worried chord in her, but her puppy love had never reappeared inside of her until recently. Ever since the truth was revealed to her seven year old self, it had dawned upon her that there is nothing she can do to help.

But knowing this piece of information can help. Even if it means breaking a promise, Sakura is determined to assuage even a tiny bit of Sasuke's suffering.

"I know where your brother is," she announces clearly, because repeating it will be even more of a sin than uttering it once.

* * *

"Sasuke! Sasuke!" Naruto yells as he dashes into the apartment building. He knocks excitedly on Sasuke's door, shouting his name over and over and over again. He scowls at the door, contemplates breaking it down. Before 'breaking it down,' he yells, "I've got great news for you! I know where your big brother is!!"

A clearly annoyed neighbor pokes his head out of his door and frowns at the Uzumaki. "They're not there anymore," she says, frowning. "A pink haired girl came in for a short moment, and then left. Next thing you know, out comes the younger brother with two overly stuffed bags." She shrugs. "Don't know where he's going, but it'd do us all some good if you'd be nice enough to shut up, okay?"

Naruto processes the information as hastily as his mind can process. Sakura somehow knew where Itachi is. And she told Sasuke, who went to where he is. To Tokyo.

Naruto thanks the neighbor profusely for the information, and then rushes to his own apartment to pack as many vital things as quickly as possible. He throws his bag into the trunk of his beaten-up, orange car, and then drives to the harbor. Breathlessly, he jogs to the bored-looking man sitting behind a desk and asks when the next ferry to Tokyo leaves.

"One of them just left. Nobody was on it, though," the man yawns. "Nobody but this kid."

"Did he have black hair? Pale skin?"

The man looks up at Naruto skeptically. "Why? You a stalker? Yes, he did."

"Damnit!" Naruto slams his fist on the desk, causing many papers to float to the floor. "When does the next ferry to Tokyo leave?"

"Not 'till tomorrow, at five a.m..."

After buying tickets, Naruto mutters a halfhearted thank you and retreats back to the car. Then he decides to camp out in his car for the night, and he sets his phone alarm on and turns on the radio to random station. Naruto opens the only food he can eat right now (he has no boiling water for Instant Ramen); strawberries that are excessively sour.

Before drifting off into an uncomfortable slumber, Naruto thinks of the feel of Sasuke's lips against his own – a constant reminder of how essential his promise Itachi is.

* * *

In the ferry heading from Konoha to Tokyo, there is only one person. Despite the bags under his eyes, Sasuke cannot go to sleep. His thoughts keep switching from Itachi, to Naruto, to Itachi, to Naruto again. _I can always go back to Konoha after I find my older brother, _he ultimately resolves.

Sasuke pulls a coin from his pocket, and then flips it. The coin falls uncontrollably out the window and into the water. He stares at the passing waves in silence, unsure of what to make of the result. Then, he tugs another one out of his wallet, and gently flips it, away from the open window. As he slaps the coin to his wrist, he shuts his eyes, anticipating another heads-down.

After catching a glimpse of what the coin's position is, Sasuke nearly drops it. For the first time since he turned seven, the coin is face up.

Immediately, Sasuke thinks of Naruto.

_End Chapter Seven._

* * *

It took me a long time to finish this, so I thank you for all your patience. I do realize that this series is almost over, but I'll try to lengthen it a bit more. Reviews are well-appreciated, even if it's just a happy face or an 'update soon!' Thanks all for your support!


	8. Dark Chocolate

Thank you all for being so patient!!! I'm terribly sorry for the long wait, as usual. The holiday season was ringing on my doorbell for a long time, so…yeah.

Also, I had a really bad day yesterday. But when I checked my email and saw two reviews, from **Dragon Soarer** and **Sakujo SHIN801 Manialoll,** it really made my day. Thanks you two! So, this chapter is dedicated to you!!! It really gave me that extra push to wake up early in the morning and type up the rest of this short chapter.

* * *

_Chapter Eight: Dark Chocolate_

"_I apologize, Miss Tsunade. It's too bad that I couldn't carry out my orders regarding the Uchiha, but I am a man of my word – not necessarily a man who puts his work before everything else. And don't bother asking me where he is, either. Even I don't know that. You can hand me the pink slip and tell me that I'm fired tomorrow if you'd like. I think it's about time I stopped working undercover and started making use of the dojo I own,, anyway."_

The words ingrain themselves into the tired Hokage's mind. Hatake Kakashi, one of the most trusted policemen in Konoha, betrays his leader's wishes for the very first time. He deceived them for the Fourth Hokage's murderer. Her mind numb, Tsunade pivots her chair to face the glass window, watching the sun peek up from the horizon, wishing nations around the world 'Good Morning.'

_Good morning, indeed, _Tsunade muses bitterly. She gulps down the rest of her coffee, and then slams the mug on her desk.

The Uchiha were exiled long ago, ever since the underground battle between the country and that one influential family ceased. Konoha had barely seized victory only after they had annihilated (what a crude word!) most of the family except for four members – the family that headed the revolt. After they were banished, however, Tsunade heard the troubling news that Uchiha Fugaku and Mikoto both died in an accident in Tokyo. She thought of the two, young boys that were left behind, and how much they must hate their homeland.

"Tsunade-sama!" Shizune bursts into the room. Panting, she cries, "Uzumaki Naruto…he left for Tokyo, following Uchiha Sasuke."

"And you let them just leave?!" Tsunade demands, rising from her desk.

Shizune's face reddens visibly. "Um…Ma'am, what should we do?" she asks tentatively.

Luckily, the Hokage isn't in the mood for scolding today. Tsunade seats herself and pivots her chair back to that gorgeous view of the sun rising. The sight itself appeases her boiling blood. "Pursue them," she commands after taking a deep mouthful of air. "Pursue them, and figure out where Uchiha Itachi is."

* * *

_Tokyo's streets are so different._ That is the first thought that penetrates Uzumaki Naruto's mind as he steps out of the ferry. He extracts more money from his speedily deflating wallet to purchase a map, but even that did not aid him in his arduous quest. How do you find one person in one of the most populated cities on the earth? Naruto fans himself with the map, groaning all the while. _As if finding a needle in a haystack is hard enough,_ he complains internally. _This heat is unbearable._

As he aimlessly roams the crowded sidewalks, in search for a boy with messy, raven-black hair, Naruto already is beginning to practice what he should say to Sasuke once he locates him. If he ever locates him. After a few hours of unproductive probing, the blonde minimally settled with _'Why the hell did you go without me?'_

Finally, Naruto sits down on a bench and looks despondently and pathetically to the sky. He is not one to ever give up, but this is frustrating. And the thought that kept harassing his mind (Sasuke might not even be in Tokyo anymore) did not help at all.

There are two things that kept him going: seeing Sasuke again, and the fact that he finally got a nice stamp on his passport for the first time in his life.

* * *

_Tokyo's streets never change. _

Sasuke sucks in his breath and flips the coin again, wondering if last night's unbelievably lucky coin toss was just a dream. He feels the metal against his skin, and then reluctantly peeks at it. Heads up. There must be something wrong with him.

Well, even if he gets a heads up for the second time in one day, the odds of finding Itachi are sorely against him. Sasuke is tired of entertaining the thought that his big brother might have left this densely populated city and traveled somewhere else in Japan. Or worse, to another country or continent altogether.

Also, Sasuke can't help but feel as if he is being stalked by someone. Continuously, he looks over his shoulder, feeling somebody's eyes burn against the back of his neck. Nobody is situated there that looks suspicious, of course. He takes a lengthy walk through most of the main streets, parks, and strip malls, but still sees nothing. All the while, his head turns over his shoulder instinctively as he feels that itching sensation on his neck. Perhaps he's unconsciously looking for someone. Who knows?

But then…

"_Sasuke!!!"_

Just leave it to Sasuke's bad luck to be found this early on in his search.

The Uchiha stops walking at the sound of his voice. A teenage girl behind him doesn't notice his sudden stop and unintentionally collides into him. Scornfully, she apologizes (and forces him to apologize) before striding away.

"_Sasuke!!"_

He had contemplated following the voice to figure out who the hell is calling his name until he recognized the voice as Naruto's. This brought his deliberation to a dead-end. Sasuke unexpectedly feels foolish. He discovers that he is in a typical, clichéd, female situation – _I want to see him, and I don't want to see him. _

"Sasuke!"

The voice is getting closer. There exists no doubt in the Uchiha's mind that Naruto had spotted his unruly hairstyle in the multitude and is shoving his way through the throng to get to him. Grudgingly, he makes up his mind. As a last-ditch attempt of getting away from the blonde's radar, he pulls on his sweatshirt and puts the hood up. Beads of sweat immediately start to roll down Sasuke's brow. The heat of Japan is as intense as always.

"Sasuke?"

The sound of confusion in Naruto's voice is music to Sasuke's ears.

"Sasuke."

Uzumaki Naruto is situated directly behind the person he is looking for, and yet he cannot identify him. At least, that's what Sasuke thinks. The Uchiha feels a warm hand on his shoulder, forcibly preventing him from strolling away. "Sasuke, I know it's you. Don't you dare walk away."

He clenches his fists. "How the hell did you know it was me?" he inquires without turning around.

"I recognized your sweatshirt."

_Damn. _Sasuke spins, turning to see the Uzumaki straight in his bright, blue eyes. Once he does so, he regrets the action. The blue eyes are still joyful, but filled with fretfulness and maybe a few traces of tears. The sight struck him silly. Why would Naruto be crying?

Naruto speaks, his voice as steady as ever. "And Sasuke…why the hell did you go looking for Itachi without me?"

"Why do you care about Itachi so much?"

The blonde swallows. "Because _you _care about him so much."

None of that previous sentence makes any legible sense to Sasuke.

When Sasuke's mouth remains clamped shut, Naruto steps forward and presses his lips against his. In the middle of the busy streets of Tokyo. Teenage girls around them cry out in pleasurable shock, and others either look away or watch, embarrassed by the public display of affection.

Well, that movement _still_ made no legible sense to the victim, Sasuke. He shoves the blonde away and touches his fingers to his lips. The revolting mix of dark chocolate and ramen dances on his lips. "What the hell did you do that for?" he bellows as loudly as he can, just to show the crowd that has formed around them that he is getting molested and perhaps someone should call the cops.

"Do you get it _now_?" Naruto asks, clearly impatient.

"_No_, so leave me alone!"

"Damnit, you thick asshole, I love you!"

Silence descends upon the throng. The cliques of teenage girls are whispering furiously to each other, faces clearly flushed. Parents usher their innocent children away from the scene of two men kissing and screaming profanity at each other. Many are simply watching the two of them like it is a drama. Some have whipped out their cell phones and are videotaping the event.

Sasuke's pale face colors at the final three words of the blonde's sentence. The words not only touch his untouched heart – they basically stole it. His throat immediately and abruptly becomes dry. What is he supposed to say back? His eyes scan the swarm of the interested Japanese (to his dismay, no one has called the police yet), as he sends out a silent S.O.S. Never before has he been in this kind of situation – and now he is forced to endure it surrounded by an entertained crowd?

_Bad luck. _The two words echo in his mind.

Naruto covers his mouth the moment the sentence flew out of his lips. He can almost see words _"I love you" _waltzing around the two of them, mocking him. He has never confessed this kind of love to anybody before in his entire life, and he knows that Sasuke never experienced any kind of close relationship (outside of family relations). And with that knowledge, Naruto had just stupidly and blindly admitted his love while a crowd has their eyes on him?

Still, Naruto is known for being stubborn. He lets no one sense or see the mortified him that is wondering what Sasuke is going to say. Rejection is a terrible thing – he knows that from experience. But rejection while it seems as if everyone in the world is watching you is purely…

"You idiot."

"Huh?" Naruto's determined blue eyes scrutinize Sasuke, who is visibly quaking.

"Don't you know that you're supposed to stay away from me?"

Naruto gulps down the lump that is growing in his throat. The conversation is not moving in his favor. The only thing that he can do is influence it. "I know that I love you." Shocking himself, Naruto's voice is as sturdy as a weighty boulder.

"You really are an idiot."

The 'idiot' scratches the back of his head, saying the first thing that came to his mind. "Well, I want to be _your _idiot. Does that make a difference?"

A very, very, microscopic smile touches the Uchiha's face for less than a hundredth of a second. Sasuke's downcast eyes glance up. That microscopic smile becomes just a diminutive one.

"I - wait, what?"

"Can you please tell the truth?"

"I…suppose it does…"

The mob encompassing them impulsively _"Awws."_

Naruto whispers, "I think we should end it with a bang."

"_What?"_

He seizes Sasuke and kisses him deeply, pleasing their audience. Sasuke almost steps on the blonde's foot, but stops himself. He kisses Naruto back, still tentatively. A sensation that is new to the both of them connects them in a way that does not have to do with death, sorrow, or even 'bad luck.

"Do you love me?" Naruto asks softly.

Hesitation and realization rips through Sasuke. No, he isn't quite ready to love anyone – including Naruto.

* * *

Although it isn't his first time leaving the country, it certainly is the most unique time. Since Konoha is a small and barely influential country in the vast world that they live in, duty seldom calls police to do their job outside of their normal boundaries. Asuma leans back and against the banister that stops him from falling into the ocean. Every single part of him is itching for a cigarette, but the _No Smoking _sign seems to pursue him wherever he goes.

Of course, he'd like to pretend that he becomes illiterate once a decorative sign that portrays a lighted cigarette being crossed out with in bright red crosses his path. But that won't help his career as a policeman.

Still, despite his unfulfilled need to damage his lungs, Asuma doesn't feel comfortable with this particular task. Crossing the sea and searching for two underage teens and one runaway murderer while avoiding attracting the attention of Tokyo police isn't very appealing to him. Even Tsunade, who firmly commanded him to do so back in Konoha, seemed very reluctant to do so.

As far as that little island knows, the two youngsters are in search of the fugitive, who is one of the teenager's younger brothers. That murderer had assassinated the Fourth Hokage, who happens to be the father of one of those teenagers. Something about all that doesn't click right in Asuma's head. Especially when the assassin had killed the previous Hokage when he was only thirteen years old.

Something about the entire Uchiha Itachi incident keeps telling him: _Parental influence._

Asuma puts a cigarette to his lips and lights it.

* * *

"So."

"So."

It is an odd pair – a white haired, undercover policeman who owns a dojo, and a pink haired girl who helps out at the famous Haruno restaurant. Both are standing at the docks of Konoha, their eyes are focused on the horizon, where Japan lies. Where one person who had influenced their lives with a simple promise is now. Where the two people who they broke their promise for is now.

"You told him," Sakura says, her emerald eyes still watching the seemingly lap at the sky.

Kakashi raises a white eyebrow. "You told him, too."

The adolescent shrugs nonchalantly, even though the movement is full of meaning. "I had to. I had a puppy-love crush on him, remember?" The last part is sort of a joke, yet still a factor. "Why did _you _do it?"

"Because something about the promise made absolutely no sense to me."

"And yet you kept it up until now?"

"Actually, it didn't actually apply until they came back."

"I see."

A silence descends. In that time, Sakura checks her digital watch and then sighs softly. "I have to go to work again." She gives a final, acknowledging nod to Kakashi and then ambles off, clearly taking her time. The white haired man watches her wearily, his hanging eye even droopier than usual. He decides that it's time for him to go, as well.

Before that, he takes one last look in at the horizon, and wonders if Itachi's choice was the correct one.

* * *

"Um…Now what?"

Sasuke pauses, mulling over the Uzumaki's inquiry. Now what. What an excellent question. "I've already checked where we used to live, or the places he'd regularly visit." Sasuke scowls at himself and his feeble attempts. "I don't know where to look for him next. For all we know, he could be on a plane going to the other side of the world."

"For some reason, I doubt that." Naruto, who is resting on a bench, is leaning back and looking at the clouds in the same fashion as one of his friends, Shikamaru. A lazy smile is spread across his face.

Sasuke shoots him a puzzled glance. His brow is furrowed, and his eyes portray complete anxiety.

"I said 'for some reason,' didn't I?" the blonde straightens up in the bench – his eyes left the white, cotton-candy clouds. "Wow, look at you, Sasuke. You're gonna die young with all the stress you have."

The Uchiha almost kicks Naruto where the sun doesn't shine. What stops him, however, is Naruto's blaring ring tone. "Who the hell would be calling me?" the blonde murmurs, fishing for his cell phone in his pocket and then putting it to his ear. On the other hand, Sasuke knows who is calling him. He reaches for the phone, but Naruto pulls away. His face is screwed up in concentration – he is obviously attempting to sponge up every single syllable over the noisy Tokyo crowds.

"_I see you're at Tokyo." _

"Yeah, 'course we are."

"_I suggest you go home."_

"Why? We're looking for you, and Sasuke here is worried sick!"

A short silence ensues. Then, Itachi speaks again, as if the beginning conversation never occurred. _"I see you're dealing with the truth better than I expected – don't say a word, Uzumaki. Right now, you have to tell Sasuke."_

"Why?!"

"…_because he deserves to know the truth."_

"Why would you want your younger brother to know that?" Naruto looks up; catching a glimpse of Sasuke's alarmed expression. He lowers his voice substantially, cupping his mouth with his hand. "Geez, are you trying to destroy his life? Or maybe your own?"

"_Perhaps."_

"Naruto, give me the fucking phone." His hand is outstretched. If Naruto doesn't give the phone to the distressed Uchiha, Sasuke will certainly wrench it out of his grip.

"_Give it to him, Naruto."_

Naruto cannot believe he actually handed the phone to Sasuke. Dejectedly, he sits on the bench, watching Sasuke's expression turn from relieved, to apprehensive, to frightened, and to totally shocked. And finally, Sasuke hangs up. He sits down next to Naruto (_thank God he didn't just dash away_, the blonde thinks).

Sasuke's unruly, raven bangs cover his eyes. "Why."

It undoubtedly isn't a question.

"Your father, too," the Uchiha points out. Naruto nods solemnly while picking through his vocabulary to try and find even a couple of meaningful words that could possibly comfort Sasuke.

"Why would he do that to my parents?"

Sasuke's usually strong and cool voice is now shaking and miserable. The sound of it hurt the Uzumaki all the more – perhaps he shouldn't have given the phone to Sasuke. _Of course I shouldn't have!_

Naruto looks anxiously over at Sasuke, who is unmistakably trying not to cry. He puts a hand on a slightly trembling shoulder and says, "It's okay to cry."

He looks sideways to face the blonde. "I don't want to," he declares, blinking back tears. "I don't need to. I cried for them enough when they died." He stands up and pulls the blonde up with him. "Right now, we have to find my brother. So I can know the truth."

Naruto nods uncertainly, but follows Sasuke anyway. His mind is on other things, however. The mystery of Uchiha Itachi's actions is gradually becoming clear to him.

* * *

I'd greatly appreciate your reviews! I always said that writing was my life, but with the horrible life I'm leading right now, it really is my only salvation. Thank you guys for your never-ending support!


	9. Sweet Candy

Thank you all for your supportive reviews! They all make my day every time I check my e-mail. And I hope you guys all are having a Happy Holiday!

And I forgot to tell you something here. This is probably the second-to-last chapter in my story. I'm planning a NaruSasu next, but I might change my mind easily. I have a poll in my profile, because I want to ask my reader's opinion in my next story. Please check it out! And enjoy the chapter! (And sorry for the shortness…again.)

* * *

_Chapter Nine: Sweet Candy_

This might be the only moment in Sasuke's life when he will refuse to let go of someone's hand, even while they are in public. He looks apprehensively to Naruto, who hands him a 100 yen, then nudges him over to the small booth that is located at the sidewalks of Tokyo, selling instant games and small packs of sweet candy. "This is stupid," he whispers before complying. Sasuke hands the clerk the cash and purchases a scratch-and-win game. He marches hastily back to Naruto, evidently ashamed of even being situated near the stand.

"Scratch away!" Naruto chirps cheerfully. Sasuke glowers at him behind his raven bangs as he takes a coin and 'scratches away' to reveal the results. The blonde is peering over his shoulder while Sasuke is quite frightened to look at the outcome. "I was right!" The Uzumaki cries deafeningly, taking it and waving the paper ecstatically over his head. "We won 3000 yen!" he announces, taking Sasuke's wrist and scuttling to the clerk.

Sheepishly, all Sasuke can say is, "Something is really wrong with me."

Naruto grimaces at the other's boy's negativity. "Nothing's wrong with you," he replies briskly, handing him the 3000 yen. "I'm just rubbing off of you."

Indecisively, Sasuke nods and pockets the money. They needed it, anyway. After being reunited, they spent an entire day searching for Uchiha Itachi. Both of them are now beginning to wish that their (newfound, in Sasuke's case) luck can actually apply in severe situations such as these. The more time they waste in searching for the missing older brother, the more money they are forced to spend.

"I don't want you withdrawing money from your college savings!" Sasuke had scolded Naruto that night, when they were attempting to afford a decent room. "You have absolutely nothing to do with this, so there's no need for _you _to squander all your money." He shoved the Uzumaki out of the way and withdrew money from his own college savings.

"You fucking hypocrite!" Naruto had retorted.

"I'm not a hypocrite," Sasuke pointed out unconcernedly. "Unlike you, if I can't find my brother, I'm probably done for."

"You have me!" Naruto piped up heatedly.

Sasuke rolled his eyes. "And, unlike you, I can actually geta scholarship."

* * *

It is another dull, dreary, and tiresome day for Haruno Sakura. After unsuccessfully begging her parents to let her take the day off, she did the minimal amount of work. All her friends that came by pointed out how down she seemed, and then asked why. "Thanks for your concern," she'd respond. "But I'm just having a bad day."

And she was. Sakura barely had any sleep last night; primarily because she was so busy trying to figure out if what she did was the right thing. Sasuke would certainly thank her profusely. But she wondered about Itachi – and why, exactly, she became part of that promise. Kakashi never explained anything properly, and he in no way put any effort into doing so.

After that, her parents made her work as a waitress instead of working at the front desk. They told her that her fatigued and rather angry expression scared the customers away. Sakura couldn't blame them, but she was aggravated, nonetheless.

"Sakura, your shift was over quite a while ago!" her mother tells her. Sakura says a thank-you and then trudges back up to her room again. She buries her face in a pillow and struggles to slumber. Just as her mind is about to fall into the world of dreams, her cell phone blasts its ring tone. Sakura groans and almost ignores it. Nevertheless, she answers the phone (which is an unfamiliar number), and immediately does not regret her decision.

At first there is a little static. And then… "Why did you tell them?"

The voice is proverbial. Who else could it be, other than Uchiha Itachi? Sakura's back straightens instinctively. The voice never fails to send shivers down her spine. "I had to. It was for Sasuke's own good." She bites her lip fretfully. "Why don't you tell me anything?"

"I told you all that you needed to know. So why do you betray me?"

"Because your plan is pathetic!"

"Pathetic? It's actually succeeding, despite your mistakes. Kakashi, too." There is a bitter humor to his voice.

Sakura's green eyes blink back tears. "I don't understand why you would want to do that to yourself." She presses the phone hard to her ear, and says, rather immaturely, "It's not fair."

The acidic wit returns. "Nothing in life is fair. I'm sure you've figured that out by now," Itachi replies softly.

"Well, if you can make it fair, then you should do so!"

"What childish morals. I guess that's what I envy about all of you." There is a brief pause. Then…"I'm out of coins and time, sorry."

Sakura opens her mouth to protest, but Itachi had already hung up.

_Liar, _she thinks despondently, burying her face in her beloved pillow yet again. _Itachi is a liar._

* * *

It was rather easy to stumble upon them. Asuma leans against a wall, waiting for the two adolescents to leave the bank. Instead of scouring the city of Tokyo aimlessly, he had stopped by one of the most visited banks for the two of them to show up. Fortunately for him, he got lucky on the first shot. He had peered through the glass doors and saw unruly, blonde spikes and abnormally styled raven hair.

They both finally exit the building after Asuma had waited ten minutes. Naruto is chatting away and Sasuke is absent-mindedly nodding his head and putting in a 'yeah' every once and a while. Without turning to look at them, Asuma's hand rests on the Uzumaki's shoulder, causing him to jump in surprise.

"Who the hell…?" Naruto demands, shoving the stranger's hand off of his violated shoulder.

Asuma drops the cigarette on the floor and puts it out with his foot. "You don't remember me, Naruto?" he says, a bit too merrily for the moment. "I'm Sarutobi Asuma."

Naruto blinks in recognition. "Oh yeah! You're part of the po-" More acknowledgment floods into the slow blonde's brain. He glances nervously to Sasuke, whose eyes express great hatred.

"What are you here for?" interrogates Sasuke. "And don't say you're here on vacation."

Asuma doesn't answer the boys question until he lights a second cigarette. "What if I was?"

Sasuke's eyes narrow. He refuses to let any suspicion pass him by. "Then why would you wait in front of the bank just to say hi to us?"

"Heh. Beats me," Asuma remarks, looking longingly up at the sky. Well, the Uchiha are branded prodigious. He should have known that this small task would be an arduous job. "Anyway, I've got a message from the Hokage." He looks side to side, and then says, "Why don't we talk about this someplace more private?"

"Why?" Naruto cuts in inquisitively.

Asuma sighs. "Konoha and Japan are enemies. I don't feel comfortable talking about official business where everyone can hear us," he explains in a low tone. He turns and begins to walk away, gesturing that they follow. Sasuke nods cautiously to Naruto, and they both warily trail him.

"What should we do?" the blonde panics.

"Just play along, for now," Sasuke murmurs. "The Hokage might know something. And besides…" His pace quickens significantly. "It's not like we have any leads on where Itachi is."

* * *

The trio ceases walking deep in an alleyway. Naruto thinks of how clichéd the setting is, but brushes the unsatisfied feeling away. Right now, he has to worry about Sasuke. He glances uneasily at him, and then lets out a sigh. "Okay, Asuma. Spill."

"The Hokage will let the Uchiha remain in Konoha again," Asuma declares while lighting his third cigarette. He continues speaking once the Uzumaki opens his mouth, probably to exclaim his joy in the news. "But, there's a catch, of course." An extensive trail of smoke rises into the clear air. "You have to find Itachi and bring him to the Hokage."

Skeptical Sasuke shoots back, "What are you going to do with him if we do? Sentence him to life in prison? Give him the death penalty?" He leans against the brick wall and looks at the dirty sidewalk. "We can't trust you."

Naruto (who fully appreciates the 'we' Sasuke had decided to utter), joins in the conversation. "Can't we compromise? I mean, is there some way for the Uchiha to come without having to suffer for their crimes? Aren't they permitted to have a trial by jury?"

"They are," Asuma responds, a little impressed at the Uzumaki. He had been told that the Fourth Hokage's son did not inherit his brains, but he certainly knew a few things. "But you need to bring Itachi back first."

"What if we can't find him?" Sasuke inquires, reading this unwritten contract thoroughly so that there aren't any loopholes

Asuma shrugs, "Tough luck." Naruto glowers at him. "I need to ask the Hokage about that," he rapidly adds.

Intolerant Sasuke commands, "Then ask now."

"Fine, fine. Bossy, now are we?" Asuma grins at the Uzumaki who nods exasperatedly as a silent agreement on one thing. The policeman extracts his cell phone from his pocket and dials the Hokage's office number. "Hey, this is Asuma…Can I speak to the Hokage…? No, I can't really wait…One minute, then." Sasuke rolls his eyes for what seems to be the millionth time today. Then, Asuma hears Tsunade's voice in his ear.

"What is it, Asuma?"

"Yes, well, I found them. But they're a little…demanding."

"Demanding? They have no right to be demanding."

"I know, I know. They're just wondering what would happen if they can't locate or apprehend Itachi." (Naruto flinches at the strong word _apprehend_. Sasuke senses a secret meaning behind Asuma's choice of words.) "Because, you know," Asuma puts out his cigarette. "The younger brother – Sasuke – he really didn't commit any felony. So doesn't he have a right to go back to Konoha?"

"Konoha exiled the Uchiha. That means the Uchiha family in general."

"You're so cruel, Tsunade," Asuma exclaims.

"You seem as if you're backing the kids up."

Asuma looks up to the sky, in the same fashion as one of his shogi opponents, Shikamaru. "They're _kids. _This is why I should be backing them up. And it's why you should be taking mercy on them, Tsunade."

Naruto and Sasuke exchange looks at this. Surprise, surprise.

There is a pause on the other end. Apparently, Asuma's words struck a chord in the unmovable Hokage. "I'll think about it, Asuma. For now, have them continue looking…Even if the two of them are still kids, Uchiha Itachi unquestionably isn't."

Well, he got halfway there. Asuma agrees and hangs up. "She says she'll think about it," he announces to the two adolescents. Naruto groans, and Sasuke let's out a small _"It can't be helped."_

"I guess I'll leave you alone for now." Asuma waves his cellular phone in the air. "Give me your number so that I can notify you when Tsunade makes up her mind, okay?"

Asuma leaves them a few minutes later. Naruto watches him as he blends into the crowd, and eventually disappears. "You know," he says, his blue eyes surveying Sasuke's pale face. "There's a lot more people on our side than you think, S'uke."

"Since when did I give you permission to use a nickname?" Sasuke asks edgily, disregarding the statement before the babyish label. But, he has to see eye to eye and admit that the sensation of essentially having comrades is much greater than the feeling of being alone.

* * *

Tsunade smashes the phone into its rightful place and props her exhausted back up her chair. The call made her migraine worse and her mood dropped with her willingness to fight back. Still, even through all the stress, a grin reaches her youthful face. "Why I should be taking mercy on them…huh?" she repeats Asuma's words carefully. They certainly were touching. Asuma is, after all the Third Hokage's son. It's natural that he inherited some form of idealism.

Even though she is aware of the fact that she should be peeved by his actions, Tsunade thankfully isn't. In her mind, she knows that she is capable of making the same decisions that the two adolescents had made. Nevertheless, a second, more contradicting thought comes hand-in-hand with that. What of Uchiha Itachi?

_He really is as enigmatic as everyone puts him up to be. _Tsunade muses as she buries her face in her hands. She massages her temples and endeavors to put herself into a troubled, young man's shoes. A young man that murdered the leader of his homeland. A young man that was among the only survivor of the disaster that fell upon his family.

Because, in reality, no one truly knows how the government won the 'underground war.' In fact, it isn't much of a war at all. It lasted in one month, where the Uchiha gradually began to vanish bafflingly. Tsunade never specifically gave the order to murder any of them – and when the members of the significant family began to disappear, no one in the police said a single word about it (but Hatake Kakashi always smiled knowingly under his mask of indifference). Eventually, the Uchiha was reduced to a single family, which soon was banished from their homeland.

Tsunade doesn't enjoy pondering this. She likes to believe that the Uchiha who had gone astray had provoked some police officers or some of the Black Ops or even just a man loyal to the government who just happened to be carrying a weapon.

But she still solemnly bears in mind that she cannot afford to fall victim to her imagination's beauty. The reality is the reality – the Uchiha just _disappeared_. And even after the remaining family were exiled, the two parents died in a car crash soon after.

"This doesn't make any sense!" The Hokage slaps her forehead, as if the act will literally knock some sense into her. Then, she rests her forehead against the cool glass of her vast office window. Looking down at the village, she clears her mind.

_None of this could be just coincidence. _Tsunade is never one to believe in happenstance. Someone must have kidnapped them…

Or even killed them all off.

These thoughts invade the Hokage's mind. There is no way out of them unless they find the truth…and the truth comes hand in hand with Uchiha Itachi.

* * *

Naruto juggles two cans of soda from the vending machine in the air before tossing one to Sasuke, who nonchalantly catches it and plays with the tab without opening it. The blonde sits down beside him and sighs, looking up at the clear, yet heated skies of Tokyo, boiling in the summer. "Sasuke?" he asks, raising his voice so he can be heard over the low drone of the chattering citizens passing by.

"Hunh…?" Sasuke, who is clearly beat, does not move his eyes away from his untouched soda.

Naruto clears his throat nervously. "Are you sure this is right?"

"What is?" This attracts Sasuke's attention. The dark eyes interrogate the Uzumaki, while warning him to not go_ there. _

His blue eyes avoids Sasuke's onyx ones purposely. "I mean…considering your brother's actions…" He can see this strikes an unhealthy chord in the other boy. Thankfully, Sasuke doesn't utter a word until Naruto concludes his point. "I don't think we should chase him anymore." Sasuke stands up and looks down upon him, his eyes portraying nothing but an Uchiha's ruthless hostility – silently asking him for his reasoning. "Because…well…" his eyes move up the sky. "Itachi apparently doesn't want to be found."

"What do you mean?"

"I mean, if he wanted us to find him, then he would have told us where he was or…he might have come back," Naruto points out while searching for a better way to make his true conclusion. "I mean, it also turned out that Kakashi, the guy who 'arrested' him, didn't turn him into the police. He brought him to Tokyo, instead. Don't you find that weird?" Sasuke is silent, so Naruto keeps explaining. "And considering the fact that he keeps calling us…and telling us these…things…doesn't this seem so well thought out?"

Sasuke sits back down, mulling over the Uzumaki's words. He finally opens his soda can and takes a few thirsty gulps. "My brother always thinks things out," he murmurs. "But if he really planned this all out, what are his reasons?"

Naruto's face screws up in thought. "I don't really know," he admits. "The only theory I have is pretty out-of-this-world." He shrugs, basically shaking their discussion off of his already burdened shoulders. "Let's go, Sasuke. We're wasting time just sitting here talking about it. The only way we can figure this out is if we find Itachi, right?"

The Uchiha nods in hesitant agreement and stands up, as well. Even when Naruto said to stop thinking about it, Sasuke's mind keeps running in a one-man marathon.

Itachi was the one who made them move to Konoha, knowing that it's the place that could probably ruin their lives. Kakashi was the one who arrested him and brought Itachi to Tokyo. Sakura was the one who informed Sasuke where Itachi is. Kakashi is the one who told Naruto about Itachi's whereabouts. Itachi is the one calling them every so often, telling them the truths about their parents' deaths (that _he _killed them.)

But, without Itachi, he never would have taken his first step into society since second grade. Without Itachi, he would have lived in ignorance for the rest of his life.

And, Sasuke has to confess, without Itachi, he would never have met Naruto.

* * *

It is late at night when Asuma's cell phone awakes him from his dreamland. He rubs his eyes to clear his blurry vision and reaches blindly for the vibrating and singing device. "Hello…?" Asuma drawls into the phone, still barely conscious.

"Asuma." The voice completely rouses him from his sleep. It is the unmistakable tone that belongs to the commanding Hokage. "I've…made my decision."

"Yeah?" Asuma says, tapping his fingers with anticipation on his pillow. He kicks his feet to straighten out his mangled sheets as Tsunade takes a deep breath.

"The two of them…have them come back to Konoha."

A smile touches the policeman's face. He knew from the start that the Hokage would turn herself around. Someone just needed to give her a nice push. "Yes, ma'am," he says cheerfully, for once glad to follow orders. He hangs up the phone and lets his head fall back onto the comfy pillow. The only thing that now fuels his peaceful slumber is the thought of two adolescents being able to come back home.

_End Chapter Nine_

* * *

I am so sorry for taking forever again. Thank you for reading and please review! This is my penultimate chapter, after all!!


	10. Dry Cereal

It's my last chapter! I really hope you enjoyed this story. My next story will be a NaruSasu. I'm pretty excited to start writing it (it will be a lot more...profound), so I expect it shall be out soon after this.

Enjoy!

* * *

_Chapter Ten: Dry Cereal_

He flips the coin and smirks at his newborn luck. Sasuke stuffs the coin into his pocket and then hammers two pans together to awaken his partner, Uzumaki Naruto, who was, in spite of everything, fast asleep. After they get prepared, they depart from their hotel room to start scouring the city again. Despite the fact that it's been two weeks since Itachi had vanished, neither of them lost hope (a new sensation for the Uchiha). Naruto relentlessly encourages, and Sasuke perseveres thanks to that.

Asuma, who had recently left Tokyo to head back to Konoha, and called them both one of a kind friends. Both of them decided not to inform the policeman that 'friends' wasn't exactly the most accurate word for their relationship.

"Day fifteen," Naruto declares as he steps out into Japan's powerful heat. He scans the crowd of people moving imperturbably by. He doesn't witness anyone that's significant, but the disappointment of that disappeared long ago. To be honest, neither of them assumed that they would find Itachi – even though they both wished they would.

"Day fifteen and he's probably in America by now," Sasuke murmurs tetchily. Naruto grins. Sasuke always complains and objects, but he carries on, anyway.

Naruto never proposed to stop their quest after their disagreement from before. Though the facts are still nagging at his mind, repeating them like a broken record that just won't fully shatter, he attempts to ignore them. "S'uke," Naruto remarks. "You seem tired."

"I _am _tired, idiot."

"I mean…of this."

Sasuke's eyes snap away from the moving multitude of the busy Japanese. He's silent for a while, until he acknowledges (ever petulantly), "Aren't we all?" Then, he inspects the crowd again with his onyx eyes. Naruto shrugs and doesn't utter another syllable. Whether Sasuke gives up or not isn't up to him. And if Sasuke isn't going to resign, Naruto definitely is not.

Neither of them will break. But it doesn't mean that they don't want to.

* * *

No calls, no messages, no money. Not even from Sasuke's college savings. Naruto's stomach keeps grumbling and Sasuke's mouth keeps grumbling. All they ever eat is dry cereal and dark chocolate that Naruto brought. When they began to snooze out in the streets along with the homeless, both were beginning to think of crossing the line and heading back home. Still, they're playing their game. Neither will snap until the other does.

"Day…ah, screw it," Naruto groans, fanning himself with his hand as he and Sasuke lay on the park grass. The green blades were lately sprinkled, so the cold water feels great against their sweaty backs. He shields his blue eyes from the scorching sun as they survey the clouds as they pass by. Their minute light of hope dimmed down to a mere flame on an infinitesimal birthday candle. Naruto turns onto his side to face the other teenager. "What do we do now?"

Sasuke is hushed for a lengthy period. His eyes are closed, making the blonde assume that he fell asleep, that is, until he responds: "I don't know, Naruto. I don't know." The Uchiha sits up and sighs, "He's out there. Just not here."

Naruto snorts. "Either that or he's here but he's excellent at hiding. By the way…it's month one and day five."

Now, it's Sasuke's turn to groan.

* * *

_This is the last message I'll send._

_You've been out here pursuing for me for longer than I expected. In fact, I didn't imagine that you would search for me at all. The two people whom I trusted information with evidently enlightened you about my whereabouts. Still, at this point, I don't think that it will make a notable dent._

_I hoped you would have guessed my motives and understood them by now, but maybe I underestimated you (or maybe I didn't?). Either way, I will explain everything._

_Repentance. It's the only fuel to this flame. If you still don't understand, think about how you are right now, and how you used to be. Think about what happened to your parents, and who murdered your parents. Sasuke, think about your sudden good luck – even I didn't anticipate that. If you still can't comprehend the details, I'll tell you._

_Kakashi was necessary for me to make my escape without making it too suspicious. Years ago, through my father, Fugaku, I discovered that he works undercover, and I applied that to my advantage. Even if you were to find out that he wasn't really working for the police at the time, it would be too late by then. I would have been long gone. _

_Still, I didn't trust Kakashi with certain facts. I needed to tell you about what I've done – and Haruno Sakura was supposed to do that. I noticed her crush on you, Sasuke. With those kinds of feelings that are difficult to put out, she was a shortcut. _

_Yet, in the end, they both failed to keep their mouths shut. I wouldn't blame them – both of you seem so helpless. Just looking at the two of you makes anybody want to change their ways._

_Sasuke, there is a reason that I selected that particular apartment for us to live in. Naruto, there is a reason that I implored you to watch over my little brother for me. In fact, I'm still getting over the shock that all of this worked out just as planned. You both fell in love, and through that, I know your lives will be much better._

_If you still don't see the big picture (and I don't blame you…rereading this makes me sound like a crazy man), I suppose you don't have to._

_(Sasuke, don't worry about me. I'm content just seeing you happy.)_

_-Itachi_

* * *

"We're going home." Naruto smiles his signature Uzumaki smile at Sasuke as they sit on the ferry. Sasuke sends him his signature Uchiha scowl, but, after a while, the blonde senses a force pulling the corners of his mouth upwards.

Because, after all that has happened, Sasuke has to admit that Konoha does seem like home.

When they made the decision yesterday to go back to Konoha, they phoned the Hokage, who generously funded their trip. Naruto instantaneously began to act so very excited_. "Senior year! _Senior year!_ You will come, right, Sasuke?"_

"_It's illegal not to come…so, yeah."_

"_Yay!"_

"_Yay." _

Naruto leans forward and kisses him, for the first time since they received that letter that mysteriously appeared in Sasuke's backpack. The ferry begins moving and the two of them break away from each other, still slightly embarrassed.

Sasuke turns and looks out the window, one last close-up view of Tokyo. His eyes spy someone familiar (yet not quite), watching them as the boat moves away. A smile is on the man's face – and the smile actually reaches his eyes. Sasuke's heart skips a beat as the stranger says something. He blinks and rubs his eyes and looks again but he cannot find that man again.

Maybe it was just his imagination.

* * *

Hiding from Uzumaki Naruto and Uchiha Sasuke was rather effortless. The day when he arrived in Tokyo, he took scissors to his lengthy hair. If his mother were around, she'd probably scold him until there was no tomorrow. The mere thought brought more nostalgic moments to his head – and those memories fueled his desire to keep going.

And now, seeing the ferry float away was among the most complicated things he had to do. The boat represents his previous life, the one that held all of his sins and regrets. Letting them go is easier said than done…but he does so, anyway.

Uchiha Itachi spies his younger brother looking out the window. For a split second, their eyes fell upon each other. A small smile spreads across his face. "I'll miss you."

He turns from the harbor and walks away.

_End Rabbit's Foot._

* * *

I feel accomplished…Please review if you have any questions, uncertainties or complaints.

Thank you all for your never ending support!

_Serephy_


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